Rueda Night Harvest

Our timing for visiting Rueda during harvest could not have been better.

We met Santiago Mora Poveda, Director General of the Rueda DO, at One Michelin Star Restaurante Trigo in Valladolid’s bustling, festive city. We were excited about what Chef Victor Martin had planned to serve us.

Santiago decided to give us his summary on Rueda. “This region is North of Africa and Catholic. In the past, this area was known as the capital of Spain. Thirty years ago, we had a saying the best white wines are bad red wines. Today, Rueda enjoys a 41% share of Spain’s white wine production. Rueda’s pivot point was in 2014 when we participated in a blind tasting in New York. Now several producers are trying to introduce white wines that can age”.

After our epic dinner, we walked several blocks to Santiago’s car. It was eleven pm, a perfect time for harvesting grapes in the summer. Santiago drove on dirt roads with miles of vineyards on both sides. In the distance, we could see lights near a row of grape vines.

When he pulled over, we could see a giant monster truck-sized New Holland 9090C Grape Harvester. The Harvester traveled down the rows of vines at fifteen miles per hour, gently shaking the vines and gathering the verdejo grapes for loading into dump trucks. The trucks delivered the grapes to the winery crush pad where the grapes would get sorted, destemmed, and crushed for the wine-making process.