Under the brightness of a moonlight sky and headlamps, workers dropped grapes from the blunt, while most of Portugal sleep.
They harvest Alatejo The region, sometimes called “Portugal’s Tuscany” for its rolling wineyard, olive trees and forests that supply cork to wine. About 90 minutes of drive in this vine turn LisbonThe calm autumn night smells of ripe fruit. The laughter of the workers is mixed with the sound of the leaves of rustle.
Night harvest is a time-concerted practice in vitriculture, which means to preserve the freshness of grapes and mold them with adverse effects of day heat, sunlight and oxidation. As the summer in Portugal increases for a long time, warm and more unexpected – in part due to climate change – practice has become more common here.
Babarabara Monteero, the co-owner and manager of Hurdade Da Fonte Santa Wineyard, said that she already struggled to convince her harvesters to work at night-they started doing so in 2019 till 8 pm.
“Today, we can say that they really like this schedule, because they can often work almost another day, enjoy the day, and avoid excessive heat that we often experience here,” he said.
Alcohol crop Spain, Italy And the Portugal usually occurs between August and the end of October, variation, the type of grapes and weather conditions depending on this region.
Some vineyards are harvesting at night. In some parts of Italy, others have been over a decade for more than a decade. According to Wineyard’s technical director and winemaker Cesar Fernandez, the El Koto de Rio D Rio -Wineyard begins at 5 or 6 am for the morning crop in the famous La Rioza region of Spain.
In the Alletezo region of Portugal, the day temperature can reach 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), especially in August. At night, they can leave 20C (36F) or more.
Grapes are naturally sensitive to temperature changes. Hot weather can reach sugar maturation before developing them full taste and maturity, leading to high alcohol levels but less complex wine. Acute heat also speeds up the loss of acid and can trigger the initial fermentation because wild yeast and bacteria become more active.
By harvesting at night, the vintors can lock in more vibrant tastes that improve the quality of the produced alcohol.
Monteero said, “Climate change has greatly affected our crop and process and we have adapted for years.”
Harvester, Bhi, Gentler does not consider the temperature bad.
55 -year -old Foreman Vitor Lucas says he prefers night harvest, even though there are some hot nights in early August.
Around 3 o’clock, workers take a short break to rest and enjoy food known as “Bucha”, including cheese, olives, chorizo, bread and even a little alcohol. They then return to the fields for another four hours before going home.
The liquor crop here usually ends in September or October. Late in the season, the temperature is quite cold when the foreman works in Lucas and about 10 other farms.
“This is a crop that we enjoy doing,” he said.
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Kijdham reported from Madrid.
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