The harvest is always the most special and important time in the winery, when we gather the fruits after a year of hard work and passion dedicated to the vineyard. We are thrilled to share with you the key points of the 2023 harvest:

Let’s start harvesting!
On July 31st, we picked the first grapes of the year, starting earliest harvest ever in the winery’s history.

Fist grapes of 2023 harvest (July 2023)

Drought impact on vineyards
This year’s growing season was marked by a rainfall that is more characteristic of a desert climate. This has led to irregular growth in the vineyards, especially in the older vines. The roots of the older vines are deeper and, as we have had years of drought, they have practically no water and it is more difficult for them to develop. The younger vines, on the other hand, root closer to the surface and have been able to take advantage of the low quantity of water that has fallen. Also, the vines at the edges of the vineyard have grown more than those in the middle, as the roots have had to compete less for the nutrients.

Image showing the irregular growth of the vineyard (June 2023)

Meticulous selection in the vineyard
Due to the conditions described, the vines have produced very different grapes and it will be a year of careful selection and picking the same vineyard multiple times to ensure that all the grapes are at their optimum ripeness. A task that we are able to carry out at Alta Alella because we harvest entirely by hand, and we have a team that knows the vineyard well, as it is the same one that looks after it throughout the year.

Picture of the Paraje Calificado Vallcirera with Can Genís in the background (August 2023)

Reusing bottles is not a new thing at our winery. Perhaps you were not aware of it, but all the natural wines of the Celler de les Aus have been released on the market in reused cava bottles since their beginnings. Until now this was not always communicated, but it has recently been included on the labels of the wines and cavas so that our customers can enjoy the wine twice as much, knowing that they are making a conscious choice to support sustainability.

From now on, at Alta Alella and Celler de les Aus we are taking another step forward in our commitment to the environment and sustainability, and we introduce a new system to recuperate and reuse our bottles. This process not only reduces waste but also support a circular economy by giving wine bottles a new life.

How does it work?

Through this initiative, our Wine Tourism Centre will collect all the bottles that visitors consume at our winery and afterwards they will undergo a rigorous process of cleaning and sterilization, which will be carried out by POTS, a company from Barcelona. Once they are as good as new -better than new, as they will now be more sustainable-, the bottles will be returned to the winery so that we can bottle new wines and they can be enjoyed again by our visitors.

In 2022, we received 10,000 visitors to our winery. In addition, we will also recuperate bottles that our distributor in the province of Girona supplies to the HORECA channel, a collaboration that increases the amount of bottle that will be reused. With this, we aim to make a significant difference to reducing waste, cutting down on the need to produce new glass and decreasing our carbon footprint.

Growing a more sustainable future

As a family-run winery, we are very aware that we must contribute to a more sustainable future, so that new generations can enjoy the land as much as we do. That’s why we will continue to explore new ways to reduce our environmental impact and inspire others to do the same.

Sensoreg’s integration of sensors and remote monitoring allows efficient irrigation management in vineyards through continuous control of the soil, the plant and the weather conditions

The main goal of the project is to optimize water management in vineyard cultivation through the digitalization and optimization of all the production processes, following criteria of efficiency and water saving, defined in a decision-making protocol/strategy that ensures annual production and improves the quality and oenological potential of the grape harvest.

In order to achieve this main objective, more specific objectives are defined in the wineries that present the project:

• Segmentation of the vineyard plots to optimize water management according to the microclimatological, edaphic and agronomic characteristics of the different parcels. 
• Optimization of water management in the vineyard, with the application of technology that gives a clear support in the decision of the following points:
  • Soil management for maximum use of the soil’s water reserves.
  • Timing, dosage and overall irrigation strategy.
• Correlating plant development, soil humidity sensor data, plant hydric stress data, and remote sensing images with the conditions of the farms where they are installed. This will help determine useful algorithms to automate the processes.
• Introduction and validation of “Saturas” technology, which allows the monitoring of plant water status.

Project financed through Operation 16.01.01 Cooperation for innovation of the Rural Development Programme of Catalonia 2014-2022

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