tears of the vineyard

If we say that with the pruning of the vine, everything ends, with the tears of the vine, life begins.

Pruning as the beginning of weeping

From the month of November, after the harvest, and when the vine loses its leaves, pruning begins. A process in which shoots, branches and herbaceous parts are cut.

Pruning on woody parts (shoots and branches) is called dry pruning, while pruning on herbaceous parts (branches, leaves or bunches) is known as green pruning.

Pruning is a meticulous process that must be carried out by expert hands in order to do a correct job on the vineyard, thus controlling growth and production, something that directly influences the locality of the wines, but also the longevity of the vineyard. The more expert the hands, the more life we will give to the vineyard.

“Did you know that at Bodegas Horola our vines are between 80 and 100 years old?”

When the grapevine weeps

However, pruning is carried out during the vineyard’s dormancy, a period of vegetative rest and rest that lasts throughout the winter.

It is not until the month of March, when the average temperatures start to reach 10ºC that the vines begin to “wake up”.

It is then that we can witness one of nature’s most beautiful moments. The awakening of the vine in the form of tears that fall from the cuts made during pruning.

The so-called tears of the vine, or tears of the vine is the first proof of life after the winter rest. When the roots of the vine begin to awaken and absorb water from the subsoil and the sap begins to circulate, and comes out through the pruning wounds.

The accumulation of this substance creates these wonderful jewels in the form of tears, which fall in the form of weeping.

 

How much does the grapevine weep?

The amount of liquid that can be released from a vine varies depending on the vineyard’s reserves and the weather conditions. In very rainy years, up to 5 liters of sap have been recorded, although this is out of all normality, just as there are some records in which there has been no or negligible watering in an extremely dry year.

 

When do tears end?

Nature is wise, and like everything in nature, this phenomenon also has a reason.

The cuts made during pruning are covered by a gummy substance and by the salts dissolved when the water evaporates, leading to the healing of the woody vessels.

Once the healing process is complete, this tear-shaped dripping also ends and gives way to the first shoots.

If the weeping of the vine begins simultaneously in all varieties, the first shoots may vary depending on the variety of the vine.

We can find varieties that begin to sprout around March 23, such as Garnacha tintorera, Albariño or Moscatel de grano menudo among others, which are the early sprouting varieties.

Among the late budding varieties, those that begin to show their buds from April 13, we find varieties such as Tempranillo, Macabeo or Airen.

At Horola winery, we use traditional and manual methods for the care of our vines. Generation after generation we have learned to love the vines, to pamper them and to allow them to give us excellent fruit, with which we obtain wines of the highest quality. The result of respect and harmony between man and nature.

From the tears of the vineyard to the broths

At Bodegas Horola, we like to say that the vines weep with joy when they see the wines, the fruit of the harvests of previous years.

Our complicity with the land, the vineyard and the winemaking process is maximum and we manage to transmit it in our product. A rioja of the highest quality.

This is a small sample of what you can find in our wine store.

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