Priorat wine tourism ripens like the fruit

By Martin Kirby

Are you into wine holidays? The Priorat, where we are based, is getting more and more "air time", boasting as it does the DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant wine regions. The latest feature is in the Wall Street Journal - see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440604575495512989053100.html We bottled our 2009 vintage at the beginning of September, and yesterday finished harvesting the carinyena. Heavy rain over the past week didn't help, but it looks as it we will match last year's volume of 450 litres.The grenache has almost finished fermentation (those to the wise will know from the leaf that our grapes pictured here are grenache), and while we wait for the carinyena to start we are pressing unripe grapes for juice, which we will freeze. Come to Mother's Garden next summer and you can try some of our farm wine - we are taking holiday cottage bookings now for Easter 2011 onwards. This year we have enjoyed the company of wine connoisseurs from America, Spain and England, guiding them to small yet tremendous Priorat and Montsant cellars that are off the usual trails. See our holiday page. As for the rest of the farm, we are getting set for the next two mighty challenges - what looks like being a bumper olive harvest in mid November, and our December return to England to market fresh extra virgin olive oil and my latest book, Shaking The Tree: Mother's Garden - The Growing Years. We will be publishing the preface and announcing book signings and olive oil events within two weeks, so keep an eye on the website.

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