Reporte de Ventisquero Wine Estates:

Harvest 2021: Low production due to summer rains, but grape quality improves due to colder season

The 2021 season was cooler than previous years and marked by a rain in the last days of January of which there was no historical record.

The Ventisquero Wine Estates viticultural team followed closely the progress of the 2021 harvest; “It was a harvest of great detail, looking at each vineyard and each block to make the best harvest decision and capitalize on the quality of a calm maturity ”, says Sergio Hormazábal, VWE's chief viticulturist.

During the last 8 years, progress has been made on conscious and efficient use of water in the Ventisquero vineyards and despite the fact that a rain like the one that occurred in the middle of summer is quite harmful, it did benefit to maintain the foliage and vineyard in generally almost no water until harvest. The Maipo dry farming vineyard, which was greatly benefited by the rain, was consolidated as a great project that takes up ancient traditions in pursuit of sustainability and saving water.

Among the novelties this year, there are the new varieties planted in Atacama, Cabernet Franc and Garnacha that last year had an impressive debut in quality and that today are waiting to be new products.

The rain in general affected the vineyards of Casablanca and Leyda where, thanks to constant monitoring programs, the health of the vineyards could be saved, although it did drop the production of Chardonnay, for example, in Leyda.