Harvest 2024 has started

We have started our harvest season for 2024. Ahead of us we have 10 intense weeks of harvesting our grapes, processing them at the winery and fermenting them into wines. A busy and exciting period with lots of new opportunities and challenges to tackle. Our vineyard and winemaking team are rolling up their sleeves and will be dedicated to make the best wines possible.

We have experienced two very dry winters in a row, which has an impact on this years crop. Limited rain, means that the vines needs to dig deep to get the necessary water. As we ‘dry-farm’ our vineyards (no irrigation), vines are fully reliant on the winter and spring rains to get through the hot summer. The ‘summer’ started very early this year with record breaking heatwaves in June, another complicating factor. The combination of these 2 (dry winter and early heatwaves) have had an effect on our non-Cypriot white varietals, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. We harvested them last week and saw low yields, both in bunches per vine and grape size.

We expect the effect of the drought and heat to have less impact as we move on to varietals that ripen later in the season, especially the Cypriot varieties, which are more drought resistant than the ‘imported’ French varieties. With climatic conditions likely to continue to get dryer and hotter, we need to adapt and cultivate even more local varieties higher up in the mountains.

With the viticultural and enological knowledge available in our team, we are confident that we will make good wines this year, despite the weather setbacks. And for the years ahead the keyword will be ‘adaptation’. A changing climate asks for action, both in our winemaking choices, and in advocating and raising awareness.