Harvest report Spain 2022 : a remarkable vintage

The Ribera Del Duero region was not spared from this very sunny vintage but the vines, already well adapted to a lack of water, treated us to a lovely expression of the individual vineyard plots.

The start of spring brought with it some useful rainfall for what would be a hot, dry vintage. This was almost the only significant rainfall of the season, as the cumulative annual rainfall from January to September barely reached 210mm. These spring rains led to a fast budburst with the first leaves emerging at the end of April.

While we thought that the spring frosts on the Spanish plateau were going to kept us on high alert in May, on the contrary the temperatures suddenly rose to 3-5°C above the average. This brought on a new spurt of growth in the vine. The flowering of the Tempranillo took place one week earlier than usual, on 10 June.

However, the effects of the water shortfall were beginning to be felt at the start of the summer when there was virtually no rain at all. Green
work was minimal this year and the Gobelet (bush) training of the Tempranillo meant that the clusters would be kept in the shade. The vine’s growth generally slowed down. Veraison started on 10 August, a week earlier than usual.

Although the exceptionally sunny character of the year was this vintage’s hallmark feature, the biodynamically-managed vines were nevertheless able to withstand the shortage of water. This hot, dry vintage shows the potential of the vines growing in cooler soils with a large reserve of usable water. These vines did very well, having been unaffected by the lack of water. Paradoxically, the vineyard plots that are usually more affected (especially in the Camino Gumiel area where the soil is shallow) came through the drought quite well thanks to their deep rooting. This was the case with Zumacares. The Travesaña area, with its diversity of soils ranging from clay to sand, once again produced a remarkable single-vineyard vat.

Although this year’s yields were lower due to the lack of water in thebsummer, the return of milder temperatures in September eventually
enabled the grapes to reach perfect maturity.

The harvest began early, with the Albillo, on 20 September and the first Tempranillo were picked on 26 September. The harvest of this very
sunny and very promising-looking vintage came to a close on 2 October. It has brought us some wonderful revelations in all of the Dominio Del Soto Single Vineyard wines, in which the Vinification work has brought out the potential of each Sotillo de la Ribera soil.