Journal

Harvest Report 2019

High quality grapes but in scarcity

The yield of Santorini's vineyard this year barely reached the 45% of the average annual production.  

 

Timeline

After last year's unusually early harvest, this year's starting date of the harvest in Santorini has returned to normal with the following harvest timeline:  

HARVEST START  VARIETY (TYPE)
8 August Athiri (white)
10 August  Assyrtiko (white)
11 August  Mavrotragano and Voudomato (red)
19 August  Aidani (white)
20 August  Mandilaria (red)

All varieties from all the vineyards were hand-picked and delivered to our winery by August 27th. 


Climatic conditions 

Winter: Mild with many gentle to moderate rainfalls, that helped the soil to hydrate. The total volume of rain from September 2018 to July 2019 was 570.4 mm (155 mm during the corresponding period of last year).  

Spring: Warm, with good rainfall (160 mm). On March 30, however, strong and unusually cold north winds caused damages to the vines, that were at an advanced stage of bud bursting. The same occurred on April 9 with extreme southwest winds. The damage became even worst when on May 5 strong southeast winds blew for two days. Depending the season that the vines were pruned, the 10-30 cm long stems were at the pre-flowering stage with prominent young bunches of grapes. The strong winds triggered additional sandblast with dust and pumice, that caused more distraction.

Summer: Typical insular climate, without extremely high temperatures, with brisk north winds, and high air humidity that delayed the ripening. Absence of heat waves.  

Overall it was a particularly rainy year, a real energy boost for the vines that until then were suffering from the prolonged 4-year drought. Despite the initial estimates for this year’s production reaching the levels of last year, the wind storms did not allow the vines to produce that much. Nevertheless, the vines gave us healthy grapes with ripeness of good quality due to the lack of serious diseases. 


The production of 2019

The total production of the year reached about 1,325 tons of grapes, showing a decrease of 55% from the average production.

Winemaking and Estimates: As every year, this year also has the prerequisites for producing high-quality wines. The musts, which are now in the process of completing the fermentation, show that once again we will have an excellent result. 

Aromatic bouquet of white flowers, citrus fruits such as lemon, grapefruit and white flesh fruits such as banana, melon, peach and pear.

Pronounced flavors on the palate with crisp acidity in combination with the characteristic flinty minerality of Santorini.

The wines are expected to be well structured with full body and intensity. The low production contributed to high-concentration wines with great acidity and highlighted the mineral character of Santorini.

The alcohol by volume laying between 14 to 14.5%, the acidity (depending on the level of maturation) varying from 6 to 7 gr/lt and pH from 2.9 to 3.1, ensure that this year's wines have great ageing potential.


Nikos Varvarigos 

Oenologist – Head of Production Department of Santo Wines

 

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