Yesterday, we started with this year’s wine harvest at Son Alegre in Santanyí. Our white grape varieties, Malvasía and Chardonnay, were the first ones to be picked. The cheerful activities started at 07h00 in the morning to avoid the severe heat later in the day. Luckily, our land benefits from the Emblat, a local meteorological phenomenon of a cool current of air from the sea encountering hotter air at our land at an altitude of 66 m, thus creating a fresh and cooling breeze. Our crops benefit from this current of air throughout the year and yesterday, our team of harvesting helpers welcomed its benefits just the same.

Two other white grape varieties, the Mallorcan Giró Ros and Viognier will be harvested later in August, probably sometime next week, depending on the analysis of their sugar content. Our red grape varieties such as Monastrell, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, will be harvested later then the white grapes, sometime between the middle and the end of September, depending on their state of maturation.

The grapes in the rest of the island will have another week or two to make the most of the current high temperatures and the absence of rain. The region of Binissalem, for instance, will begin its grape picking during the first week of September. The harvest there will culminate in the Festes del Vermar also known as Sa Vermada, a celebration lasting nine days leading up to the last weekend of September. Traditionally, the region of the Serra de Tramuntana is the last one when it comes to wine harvesting here in Mallorca due to the climatic conditions in this mountainous area.