The precocity of the vine-growing cycle and high temperatures in summer led to very early harvesting dates. The health of the grapes as they came into the wineries was excellent.
The 2011 vintage was one of the earliest on record in the Rueda appellation, having begun on August 23rd and finished on October 7th. The absence of cold weather during March and April caused early and fast vine-shooting. Subsequently, high temperatures in August and September brought about an accelerated ripening of the grapes, as did further hot weather during the final part of the vine cycle.
The picking began with the Sauvignon Blanc variety, whose growing cycle is shorter, followed by the rest of the varieties: Verdejo, the area’s indigenous grape, Viura and Palomino Fino, and finally the red grape varieties.
The registered Rueda vineyard surface area for the 2011 growing season was 12,590 hectares/31,100 acres (890 hectares/2,200 acres more than last year). This total is made up of 11,894 hectares/29,400 acres of white grape varieties, most of which is planted with the indigenous Verdejo variety -covering 9,991 hectares/24,680 acres.
The vast majority of the crop is harvested by machine (100% in the case of the Sauvignon Blanc variety, and 90% for the white grape varieties as a whole). The mechanical harvester allows great flexibility in the choice of picking times for optimal grape ripeness, as well as faster harvesting and optimization of the temperature of the grapes at the moment they are brought into the wineries.
The grapes were in excellent health as they were being picked, and the weather remained good throughout the harvest, during which the Rueda Technical Control Department provided 52 supervisors to oversee the transfer of the grapes to the wineries’ hoppers.
Of the 74,890,428 kg of grapes harvested in the Rueda appellation, 73,320,289 kg corresponds to white grape varieties and 1,570,139 kg to red varieties. In addition, there were sections of crops that were disqualified from Rueda appellation status by the Technical Control Department for not fulfilling the quality norms or as a result of the producers’ own decision to do so.
The distribution of grape production by grape variety and by surface area was as follows:
Production (kg) Surface area (hect/acre)
Verdejo: 61,294,624 9,991/24,677
Viura: 6,958,984 1,058/2,613
Sauvignon Blanc: 4,570,999 685/1,692
Palomino Fino: 495,682 157/388
Tempranillo: 1,348,354 591/1,460
Cabernet Sauvignon: 164,994 75/185
Merlot: 49,470 22/54