Sherry Harvest Summary 2017

It has been a year of record summer temperatures. The Spanish state meteorological service AEMET reported an average of 35.1° - 1.3° above average since records began at the airport in 1952. Rainfall was scarcer with 93 litres per square metre less than average, but this year it came at the right time. The 2016 harvest was blighted by mildew which appeared in the more coastal vineyards as a result of humidity caused by late rainfall when temperatures were already high, leading to a harvest 25% smaller than 2015. This year everything went perfectly and despite the heat the harvest was considerably larger, close to the average, with perfectly healthy grapes, nearly 50% of which were harvested mechanically.

It was one of the earliest harvests on record, beginning in the first week of August and mostly completed, except for the later-harvested Moscatel and PX, by the first week of September. The 29 lagares, or presshouses, of the area pressed a total of 74,969,993 kilos of grapes with an average sugar reading of 11.8° Beaumé. Approximately 2/3 of this came from the vineyards of Jerez where the average sugar reading was 11.87°. A total of 6,989 hectares are in production, 6,362 of which are in Jerez Superior. Since the regulations permit a maximum yield of 80 hectolitres per hectare, a small percentage of musts will be disqualified from DO Sherry for overproduction, but can of course be used for table wines or various other purposes.