| The Vineyard |
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The Winery |
Winery |
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FINCA LA ESTACADA has 278 hectares of vines that are all grown close to the winery, with the farthest at a distance of 7-10 kilometres. Of these 278 hectares, 106 of which are of Tempranillo grapes, of an average age of 25 years, 59 of Cabernet, 32 of Syrah, and 8 of Merlot. Also, in recent years the vineyard has been extended with new varieties such as Cabernet Franc, Cariñena, Malbec and Petit Verdot.
The use of varieties such as Tempranillo, the most prestigious in Spain, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, renowned the world over, and the newcomer Syrah, star of the Rhône and Australia, is not just a fashionable choice. FINCA LA ESTACADA has gradually abandoned the traditional image of head-pruned vines that has characterised the wines from Castile-La Mancha, turning instead to the geometry of the trellis system with a drip irrigation method that ensures a balanced water supply. This noticeably improves the quality of the grape, as it increases the amount of sunlight the vines receive and the distribution of production. It also improves the ripening process by producing a larger leaf surface, and in the final stage makes it possible to mechanise many of the processes required to tend to the vines. The soils are clayey with a limestone substrate, poor but with sufficient mineral resources. Ripening takes place without any problems due to the long hours of sunlight to which vines in Castile-La Mancha are exposed, but with the peculiarity of being situated in the highest part of the region. This allows for a slightly longer ripening process than in the rest of La Mancha, preserving certain acidity levels and fruit notes that would otherwise be lost with a higher average temperature. The average density of the vineyard is between 2000-2500 plants per hectare, depending on the type of grape and their location. As a result we obtain a production per hectare of between 5000 and 7000 Kg of small grapes. At FINCA LA ESTACADA the whole of the plant’s growth cycle is controlled, to ensure that the fruit entering the winery meets all of the necessary parameters for the production of quality wines. In fact, in order to obtain a good wine it is essential to start with a good raw material, using grapes that reach the winery in optimum conditions in terms of their size, polyphenolic ripeness or sugar content, amongst other parameters. Probably the most important stage of the cycle is pruning. This is intended to control how much the plant produces, and varies greatly depending on the type of growing system used for the vine, i.e. whether it is head pruned or grown on trellises. At FINCA LA ESTACADA cordon pruning is used, leaving the productive buds that are considered necessary depending on the vineyard and the variety, from which the different grape clusters will grow. |
