Heatwaves Force Early Spanish Wine Harvests, Nighttime Picking

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2022. 08. 31. 11:39

Forced to start harvesting a few weeks earlier in the season due to brutal summer temperatures and drought influenced by climate change, some Spanish vineyards such as this family business outside Madrid have also switched to nighttime grape picking to avoid working in the sweltering August heat.

Although grapes grew abundantly, the dry heat made them less juicy

Their head-mounted flashlights swaying in the darkness, workers at the Bodega Andres Morate vineyards resemble fireflies from a distance as they roll their wheel-carts from one vine to another cutting grape bunches at night. Grapes are usually harvested in mid-September, but Andres Morate began this year on 24 August on his 20-hectare plot.

Climate change has left parts of the Iberian peninsula at their driest in 1,200 years, according to a study published last month in the Nature Geoscience journal. Spain has suffered three unusually long heatwaves this summer that have stoked devastating wildfires.

Working at night, from sundown till 2 or 3 am, has its benefits not only for the pickers, but also for the grapes before they are pressed to make wine, he said. The cooler they are when they get to the winery, the more their aroma and flavour is concentrated.

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