Cromas Carmenère Gran Reserva is the same wine as the current Carmenère Grande Réserve. The Los Vascos Cromas name inspired us with the colours of nature that reflect the terroir and the Los Vascos teams’ expertise. With this new change, the drier-than-usual start to the season required early irrigation and meticulous monitoring of the vineyard.

The major challenge for the 2019 vintage essentially resulted from the extremely high temperatures at the end of January and beginning of February (reaching 40.6°C). Fortunately, the much cooler nights, with a record low of 10.2°C, allowed high-quality grapes to be obtained with excellent ripeness and balance.
The harvests began on 15 April and ended on 7 May.

2018 offered optimal weather conditions. The season started with average rainfall in winter and spring, which provided favorable conditions for bud break and fruit onset. Minimum temperatures were mild throughout the season, and luckily we didn’t suffer any frost episode.

The main characteristic of the summer was that temperatures remained slightly below average, which allowed grapes to ripen slowly. This factor, combined with a great after season with no precipitations, was determining for the harvest timing that started rather late once the grapes had developed fully and reached optimal phenolic ripeness.

This season was marked by the high temperatures that set in rather early and forced us to harvest some 20 days early compared to the previous year. The winter was not very rainy (300 mm, approximately), considering that precipitation in a normal year hovers around 600 mm. The spring was rather hot, with a peak temperature of 30ºC, which is quite unusual. The high temperatures continued all along the summer, which is normal, however, the nights were unusually hot. Interestingly, this year we had 330 hours with temperatures higher than 30ºC compared to 164 the year before.
The harvest started on March 22 and ended on April 20.

This year was particularly normal in terms of conditions. A rainy winter was followed by a spring that brought warm days, with average temperatures of 33ºC, and cold nights. The summer months proved ideal for this grape variety, with very high temperatures of up to 39°C which, combined with good canopy and water stress management, helped the grapes to develop the harmonious, elegant tannins for which the variety is renowned.

The weather during this vintage corresponded to the usual conditions for the region. After a rainy winter, the spring was characterized by warm days (33°C) and cool nights. The summer months were also rather hot with temperatures sometimes reaching 39°C in January and February. These conditions, combined with effective management of the vegetation and some water stress, helped to produce grapes with elegant, harmonious tannins, characteristic of this grape variety.

Climate conditions were most unusual in 2014. Spring frosts resulted in fewer bunches, which in turn translated into higher grape quality and superb concentration, as it could be observed at harvest time. The unusual conditions and the extensive work conducted at the vineyard, including early leaf plucking and thorough irrigation control to monitor water stress resulted in elegant fruit of the highest quality.

The highlight of this season was the very hot summer, particularly January, February, and March. Temperatures dropped in April and May, which delayed the Carmenère harvest by a week compared to the previous season. Furthermore, the annual rainfall increased by 123 mm compared to 2012, mostly due to unusually high rainfall of 76.3 mm in December. Strict control of the automatic irrigation system and rigorous canopy management helped to produce grapes of outstanding quality that faithfully express this variety’s unique characteristics.

2012 was characterized by unusual weather conditions with 409 mm of rain, corresponding to barely 58% of the normal annual average. However, these conditions helped to control the natural vigour of the Carmenère vines.

The technical team analysed the various operations likely to strengthen the grape variety’s true identity. In particular, leaf removal and management of water stress helped to achieve satisfactory ripeness and pleasingly fresh fruit.

The harvest took place between 26 April and 10 May, Carmenère being a late-ripening variety.