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Spring has come again to the heart of Ribera del Duero, arriving at our winery located in the municipality of Quintanilla de Onésimo. This is where we’ve spent over two decades giving our vineyards the best care so that, with the harvest, it reaches your glasses in the form of wine of the highest quality, even in such difficult times as these. For us, keeping a close eye on the vine’s life cycle is nothing new.
However, it’s also true that, despite our long experience, we always get really excited with each step in the grape-growing process, especially here and now in 2021, when we all need to look for some excitement in the little details that make the difference in our everyday lives.
With the arrival of spring, we leave behind the cold winter temperatures we’ve experienced here in the province of Valladolid, especially this year thanks to winter storm Filomena, which covered our vineyards in snow. No matter what, the mild temperatures always arrive to make the plant ‘wake up’ and the sap come up from the roots to run through every inch of the vine to bring our vineyards back to life again.
The green leaves begin to bud on the shoots that were bare just a few months ago. And, what’s even more exciting, we start to see the small buds that in a few months will be clusters that will grow and ripen, turning into the grapes we’ll use to make each of our Bodegas Arzuaga wines.
Each phenological stage of the vine has its particular beauty for wine lovers, as witnessed by the many visitors who come to enjoy our wine tourism experience. This budbreak stage is especially beautiful, though. And that’s not just because we say so, but because it leaves imprints that remain engraved in our minds forever.
Then, when the budbreak is finished, it will be time for another special process: green pruning. This consists of manually clearing the part of the vegetation that doesn’t need to stay on the plant and that could be harmful to it. So, we’ll leave just two buds whose shoots will provide the clusters we’re looking for.
If you’d like to keep following each step in our vineyards, you can either come to visit our winery in Quintanilla de Onésimo, or you can also follow us on our different social media, where we’ll be publishing posts like this one.