Harvest 2022

An early harvest

“The harvest began on August 4 with the earliest varieties and ended on September 19. The majority of the harvest, which includes the main varieties of the Can Llopart estate, took place between August 12 (start date for Macabeu), August 20 and 30 (Xarel-lo and Monastrell, respectively) and September 9 (Parellada). This is the earliest harvest at the Can Llopart estate we have ever registered, advanced by about ten days compared to the average of previous years, due to the dry weather and high temperatures.”

Grapes of excellent health and concentration

It has been a year of very little rain, with even less rain than last year. Even so, the altitude of our mountain vineyards, which are surrounded by Mediterranean forest, provides a thermal contrast between day and night that is optimal for the grapes to arrive at harvest time with the level of ripeness we are looking for.

Vineyard yields have been lower than the average of recent years, very similar to last year. We will remember the 2022 vintage as an advanced and short one, but calm, which has allowed us to obtain grapes in a perfect state of health and with a high concentration.

The gradual rhythm of ripening

We harvest by hand, with great care, selecting the grapes directly from each vineyard. Of the estate’s main varieties, the first to reach the desired degree of ripeness was, as usual, the Macabeu, which this year had smaller berries, but of excellent quality. The Xarel·lo, on the other hand, showed us one more year its most resilient side, with great capacity for resistance and adaptation to extreme weather conditions. We harvested some splendid clusters.

A mosaic of grape varieties

The last of the main varieties, Montònega, the name given to the high altitude parellada, also arrived at harvest time after some very grateful small rains in the vineyards in the highest area of the estate.

After that we harvested the black varieties, Monastrell, Garnatxa and Sumoll, the protagonists of our rosés, as well as the three small vineyards of Xarel·lo Vermell, an interesting variation of xarel·lo, with a pink skin.

In the vineyard and in the winery

Harvest at Can Llopart takes more than a month, a month of intensity both in the vineyard and in the winery. Picking begins at dawn, to avoid the hours of maximum sunshine and to preserve the freshness of the grapes as much as possible. While in the vineyard the harvesters manually fill the baskets, crates, and trailers, in the winery the team is in charge of receiving, pressing, analyzing, and classifying the grapes to prepare the juices and follow the fermentations.

Microvinifications and singular elaborations

To deepen the characteristics of each variety, but also in the uniqueness of the different vineyards that make up the Inherited Can Llopart, we carry out microvinifications of 500, or 1000 liters, we refine some wines in ceramic jars, or age others in oak and acacia barrels. Some will be base wines for sparkling wine, others will start fermentation in stainless steel tanks and finish it in the bottle,…

From the very moment of harvest, each grape embarks on a unique journey… to the glass.