Let the harvest begin
As you already know, September is the month of the grape harvest, although, sometimes, it can be somewhat delayed in time and this work can be done at the beginning of October. It all depends on the weather and how the grapes, which are the main protagonist, are doing.
This year, for example, harvesting began around September 17, although some wineries did it a few weeks earlier with earlier grape varieties.
But what does this process consist of?
The grape harvest is known as the process of collecting the grapes that are later used to make wine. In the case of Txakoli with D.O. the harvesting of the fruit is done by hand, as it has been done all our lives. To do this, a large team of harvesters is responsible for collecting all the grapes and transporting them to the containers at the entrance of the wineries.
The next step is called destemming and crushing, where the grapes are separated from the stems. These grapes then go to a press where, first, the must is extracted and separated from the skins.
This is followed by fermentation, which takes place in huge stainless steel containers where the yeasts in the must feed on the sugars, generating alcohol and carbon dioxide.
This is followed by racking. This is a process that involves a change of containers in which solid residues are eliminated and the wine is aerated.
And finally, bottling. This process is nowadays carried out with the help of machines and it is also at this moment when the balancing is finished.
It is a long and delicate process in which all the steps must be rigorously followed in order to obtain the best Txakoli with Denomination of Origin.