A universe in each bottle: This is how the "new harvest" is made in Valdeorras.

After a year of work and cares in the vineyard, it comes one of the key and more analyzed moments in the modern era of wine, in order to get a wine of the highest quality: the vintage.

The study of the acidity, the sugar and the tannin maturity (polyphenol maturity) determines the optimal time for the harvest, which is made as quickly as possible, during the colder hours of the day (or night), using plastic containers and in small amounts.

In some cases, the harvest is made in different stages and for certain wines or even there is a cautious selection of the grapes.

Once in the winery, where hygiene and cleanliness must be optimal (some people argue that this factor is noticed in the wine quality), the resulting must that has undergone destemming and passed through crusher, begins its fermentation in clean and conveniently desinfected stainlees steel tanks, the material used in Spain for the fermentation and the aging of wines.

However, in recent times there is a trend of processing and preservation as it was in the past in which, without prejudice the proper asepsis required by the winery, wood and concrete are materials widely used either for the beneficial micro oxygenation or the polyphenolic extra contribution.

While more than 100 years ago the wine aging was the result of the necessity of storage and transport, today it is in many cases a universal and democratic obligation that every winemaker must perform in at least some of its wines, if pretends to compete in the market.

The calculation and technicity have also occupied an important place in this area, where nothing is left to chance; from the origin and type of wood, to the exact amount of tannin that contains and, of course, the age of the barrels, which should preferably be young and new.

All these criteria have not gone unnoticed for the D.O. Valdeorras appellation, in which its wineries lovingly care the smallest detail; and all this dedication has made possible their presence in the most demanding markets, with wines that have been valued with infinity of international awards and praised by the most prestigious winemakers, critics and sommeliers of the international wine sector.