This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)
As you surely already know, Bodegas Arzuaga is located in Quintanilla de Onésimo, in the heart of Ribera del Duero. For 25 years, we’ve been making our wines in the Golden Mile of one of Spain’s most outstanding appellations of origin. In addition, in 1997, Florentino Arzuaga, the founder of Bodegas Arzuaga, also took a chance on the region of Castile-La Mancha, attracted by the world of olive oil and, in particular, the olive variety Cornicabra, which reaches its most magnificent expression in the area around the Montes de Toledo mountain range. After starting to produce oil and looking for new land to plant olives, Florentino Arzuaga found the La Solana estate, ideal for planting vineyards, in the municipality of Malagón, in the province of Ciudad Real. This is the origin of our Pago Florentino, a wine of excellent quality made from Cencibel grapes that has achieved Vino de Pago status – denoting that the grapes come from a single estate that meets special conditions – as well as accolades from both opinion leaders and consumers.
Today, we continue to look after our vineyard in Malagón and enjoy the different phases of the vine growing cycle. That’s why, here on our blog, we wanted to share with you one of the most special moments we experience with this natural spectacle that is the vineyard: fruit set, the moment when we start to see what will turn into the bunches we’ll pick in the next harvest.
The bunches are green, still very small and, of course, without the grapes formed. But they’re already in the vineyard. From these first indications, we can already get an idea of what the Cencibel grapes will be like in a few months that we’ll use to make the 2022 vintage of Pago Florentino.
After nearly three decades working in the vineyard, there’s no question to us that the vine growing cycle is a real natural spectacle. Season after season, the vineyard always offers us beautiful to enjoy and discover. However, even though each moment has its own undeniable beauty, when spring comes and brings the fruit set along with it to the Pago Florentino vineyards, it’s one of the most special moments. After harvesting the grapes, when we’re already in the depths of winter and the vines are bare, the growing cycle begins again; we start on a new path that, with the fruit set, already starts to show us the first signs of what will end in another vintage, the bunches we will harvest carefully to make our wine from Castile-La Mancha.