Unprecedented record: the earliest harvest in the history of Penedès has begun this morning

Saint Sadurní d'AnoiaThe Gramona winery, from Corpinnat, began this early morning the earliest grape harvest in the history of Penedès, on July 22nd. A unique and exceptional event that has broken all records, if one can say so, that had been set for harvests in the territory. If 2023 the same winery Gramona started it on July 26th, a date that was already very advanced because we came from a tradition of harvesting in mid or late August, this year it is still four days earlier. And that last year it seemed that this advance was slowing down, because July 31st was the first day of harvest in Penedès. Climate change has broken all our schemes, and if this year it is July 22nd, it could be that soon everything will change again.

All of this is caused by the high temperatures of the last two months, which have prevented the grape berries from swelling. “If we don’t pick it, then there are problems of dehydration, of breading,” explains Roc Gramona, who adds that picking the grapes so early also ensures that they are fresh and aromatic. On the contrary, leaving them longer would mean running the risk of picking an overripe fruit, in addition to less volume. “This year all forecasts were for healthy, quality grapes, because we had a lot of water reserves during the winter with frequent rains, green pruning and thinning have been done well, but the heat of the last months has caused everything to accelerate, especially the chardonnay that we use for sparkling wines,” states Roc Gramona.

Early morning harvest

Since 2024, the winery located in Sant Sadurní harvests from three in the morning until the early morning to ensure the freshness of the grapes and that workers avoid the hottest hours of the sun. They harvest at night with headlamps and it breaks all the images we have in memory of farmers picking grapes in broad daylight, when it's scorching hot. Now the grapes are illuminated by the beam of light from each worker's headlamp while darkness spreads around.

The vineyard the winery has harvested is from the town of Bedorc, located in Piera, northwest of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. And it is precisely one of the varieties that wineries affiliated with Corpinnat have tried to stop using in 2035: chardonnay. “Between 2027 and 2028 we will pull it out, because it is a variety that suffers with high temperatures, that is not as resilient as local varieties are,” says Roc Gramona, who insists that the vineyard has been very healthy all year round. “Fertility has been high, because each shoot had an average of two bunches, which is a good indicator, but if the grapes don't fatten up, if they don't swell from the heat, if the roots also suffer, then you have to harvest them immediately.” With the chardonnay they have started to harvest this early morning, they will produce Gramona Imperial.

With the harvest that Gramona started this early morning, one of the big debate topics is put on the table, which is the price of the harvested grapes that the winegrower charges. “We as a winery have agreed to pay it at 1.20 euros, and Corpinnat, as a brand that encompasses twenty-three wineries, at 0.945,” says Roc Gramona. For his part, the president of the Association of Cava Producers, Joaquim Tosas, recalls that companies cannot set prices, that the market moves according to supply and demand. Despite this, he believes that prices could be similar to last year's, which were around 0.60 euros, a price that also varied according to varieties. Tosas also states that Sumarroca could start harvesting at the beginning of next week while Marta Vidal, president of the DO Cava, has announced that they will start on August 3rd. For their part, Clàssic Penedès says they will start this coming Thursday, July 23rd.

Regarding the tension in Penedès with the grape surplus, Joaquim Tosas emphasizes that last year there was base wine and not so much grape. This year the president of the Association of Penedès Winemakers, Josep Anton Vendrell, states that they are experiencing "a very critical situation, in which 35% of the planted vineyards in Penedès (between seven thousand and ten thousand hectares of vineyards) could be left over, and in this upcoming harvest the price of grapes could plummet. Last year the DO Cava paid between 46 and 60 cents".The idea that there will be surplus flat vine in Penedès causes uncertainty, because the winegrower cannot be asked to cultivate the vine for nothing. Demographic and industrial pressure in the Penedès region, between Barcelona and Tarragona, could end up winning if a solution is not found for this grape that has been used until now. Meanwhile, there are wineries that have declared that they will use more grapes. Codorníu has announced that it will use 20% more, and Sumarroca also assures that it will increase by 5% more grapes. Meanwhile, at the top of the Regulatory Council of Cava, Bruno Colomer, stated that they had begun to work on ideas to give an outlet to the surplus grape, so that it can be harvested and converted into concentrated must. The objective is that the green lung of Penedès does not disappear, that the green landscape of the vineyard endures in the territory.