The 2025 Spanish vintage, direct from the sorting table
As we write this in mid-September, the Spanish grape harvest is well underway. We always keep abreast of what’s happening through conversations with our suppliers, but this year we had a particularly hands-on view as William and Barbara Long “helped out” during the harvest at Bodegas Frontonio in Aragón.
This gave us a real feel for the quality of the 2025 grapes. As Barbara reported here, several crates came in of jewel-like grapes that drew whoops of delight from the sorters, but most needed to be carefully picked over to remove over-ripe grapes. Some parcels were also damaged by hail.
In terms of quantity, despite heavy winter and spring rainfall replenishing water reserves, this year’s crop is still expected to be short, as it depended on shoots laid down in 2024 when drought limited growth. Hot dry weather in August also caused what was a late budding vintage to speed up and ripening accelerated through the final stages.
These means that initial estimates of a larger harvest were downgraded during the summer, with the Spain’s association of food & farming co-operatives reducing their predicted harvest from 37.5 million hectolitres to 34 million. However, president Fernando Ezquerro explained that quality is good: “rainfall at various points of the growth cycle came as a relief, helping the recovery of vineyards that were affected by the droughts of recent years. In general, the grapes are high in quality with balanced acidity and alcohol.”
The predicted reduction in production comes after a smaller than average harvest in 2024, and a historically small harvest in 2023. As such, grape prices have risen, with average prices per kilo up 7%- 20% on 2024.
In the Mediterranean regions, such as Cataluña, harvesting kicked off at the end of July. After three years of severe drought, the rainfall in winter and spring relieved some of the accumulated water deficit, and there are expected to be 28% more grapes than last year in the Catalan areas of the DO Cava, according to the Catalan Institute of Vines and Wine (Incavi). Although some areas have suffered damage due to hail there were none of the serious outbreaks of leafhoppers or fungal disease seen in previous years. Quality looks excellent with fresher, more aromatic and lighter wines than in previous years. Prices have risen although they are still described as “unsustainably low” by some growers.
Jordi Amell, CEO of the partner winery that supplies our De Pró Cava brand, explained that the vintage was still small compared to historic averages but not dramatically so, and health and quality look excellent: “The harvest has been short but of outstanding quality, with optimal phenolic maturity, balanced acidity and a high alcohol level: ideal conditions for producing wines and cavas with character and elegance.”
Our contact in La Mancha also started harvesting Chardonnay at night in mid-August, commenting that, “We expect harvest to be down between 20-30% on last year. The quality, however, will be better, with higher alcohol levels than usual.”
Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay were also the first grapes to be picked in Rueda in late August, followed by Verdejo in early September. Some vineyards were hit by hailstorms in early July, but in general a good harvest is expected with heavy rainfall over winter building up reserves ahead of the hot summer.
Our partner winery in Rioja Oriental had harvested almost all of its grapes by the 12th September, with just a few parcels of Garnacha and organic grapes left to pick. Winemaker Gorka Extebarria, comments that, “There are very few grapes, yields are down to an average of 2,500 kilos per hectare, but the quality is good.” He comments that the “Graciano is spectacular,” and he expects the Garnacha to be of a similar quality, “The large temperature ranges over the last two weeks have really helped. Tempranillo suffers more in our area because of the challenge of maintaining balance between freshness, pH and acidity.” The health of the grapes is also exceptional, and he expects wines to be very good, though in short supply.
Further north, in the Rioja Alta, although the start of the cycle was late, ripening accelerated due to heatwaves in mid to late August and some parcels of bush vines were harvested as early as the 3rd of September, although most of the red grapes were still on the vine in mid-September. Despite abundant rainfall in winter and spring, marked temperature oscillations as well as dry summer weather caused some heat stress. This has led to small berries and loose bunches, giving a high must-to-skin ratio and deeply coloured, aromatic wines.
Storms with hail and outbreaks of mildew have also led to losses of up to 50% in some vineyards across Rioja. The harvest is expected to be short – 2024 was the smallest harvest in history and 2025 looks to also be very small in terms of production.
It’s still early days in DO Ribera del Duero, one of the later regions to harvest, but some of the old vine parcels were starting to be picked in Quintana del Pidio and La Aguilera in Burgos during the second week of September.
In Galicia, a hot and dry year has lead to an early harvest. A high level of bud fruitfulness means that quantities are good – with DO Rías Baixas predicting a bumper harvest – despite the devastating effects of wildfires in some regions. These spread rampantly through Northwest Spain in August – particularly Galicia and Castilla y Leon. Ourense was the worst region affected with over 90,000 hectares lost, particularly affecting DO Valdeorras, but also DO Monterrei, DO Ribeira Sacra and DO Bierzo. As well as the loss of vines to fires, the other risk is smoke taint, with some wineries already saying they won’t release wines from the 2025 vintage due to the affects of smoke on the taste.
One of the other challenges has been the lack of workers to pick the grapes, with spokespeople commenting that whereas seasonal workers in the tourist sector used to be available to help pick grapes, the fact that harvest is getting earlier and earlier due to climate change means they are still working in restaurants and hotels. Others have headed to France to benefit from higher minimum wages. Fernando Mora MW also commented to us on his visit that he sees the biggest problem as the abandonment of the countryside and the ancient vineyards by the younger generation.
With hail destroying some parcels of vines over the weekend of the 14th/15th September in Somontano, the threats are far from over. We will keep you updated as the grapes arrive at the wineries throughout the rest of autumn.
Table summarising general trends and predictions at 18 September 2025
