“I have gone from harvesting with a coat to doing it with short sleeves and always looking at the sky. In all his youth, my father does not remember a single hail storm and now they come to us in September, destroying our harvest and even in spring, destroying that year’s crop and the next, because it takes away all the buds.” This is how Berta Valgañón, a farmer and producer with a winery in her name in the Rioja Qualified Denomination of Origin, explains.
In winter it does not snow and the earth does not have a reserve of water for the roots, in February it is hot and the plants begin to sprout earlier but the risk of frost extends until May, so the risk of losing those sprouts is high. In spring it barely rains and summer is completely dry. When there is precipitation, it is often in the form of strong storms, even hail, and when the harvest arrives it is so hot that the sugar and acidity levels become completely unbalanced. The climate crisis is wreaking havoc on many crops and the vineyard is one of the most visible.
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