OENSIGHTS

‘’Six years running with less than 250mm of rain’’
‘’Second year straight of big yield drops’’
‘’The vine knows best: Adjusting itself like a pro’’
‘’Old-school, ungrafted vines steal the show again’’

We couldn’t settle on just one headline for the 2024 PFC harvest report—so why bother? They all hit home, summing up a year that kept us on our toes.

At first glance, 2024 looked like a remix of 2023, but faster. Dive a little deeper, though, and it’s clear this year had its own twists, from what kickstarted the early ripening to how the shockingly low yields played out. Unlike last year, we dodged heatwaves topping 38-40°C. Instead, the real action went down in spring. March, April, and May brought summer-like vibes, with budding, blooming, and shoot growth taking off like they were in a rush—everything ran about 15 days ahead of schedule compared to 2023.

By the time June rolled in, water reserves were at rock bottom, and the vines kept hustling through fruit set and cluster closure at record speed. We braced for the early harvest, but the real jaw-dropper? Yields nosedived across the board—every vineyard, every variety, every vine age. We clocked numbers between 22 and 45 hL/Ha. The kicker? No one saw it coming in June when the cluster counts looked solid. Turns out, the wild weather messed with berry cell division and growth in ways we didn’t catch at first.

___

Harvest Breakdown

Monemvassia: July 28th – August 26th
Mandilaria: August 2nd – September 5th

Fast-forward to the first tastings of 2024, and here’s the tea: the wines are packing major punch—super concentrated, intense, and with that salty kick stepping up even more compared to 2022 and 2023. Monemvassia batches are rocking alcohol levels between 13.0% and 13.8%, but the fruit still gets to shine front and center. Mandilaria? She’s playing it cool at around 13.0% alcohol, just a touch higher than usual (+0.2-0.3%), giving our winemaking squad room to finesse those smooth, rounded tannins.

And speaking of leveling up, we just wrapped phase one of a two-year collab with Athens and Thessaloniki universities. The mission? Tame Mandilaria’s signature tannic bite—something winemakers all over (think Xinomavro, Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo) wrestle with. From tweaking pruning and leaf-thinning methods to experimenting with shaded cluster dehydration and seed removal during fermentation, we threw everything at it.

Now, with 2024 in the rearview, we’ve got a clear plan moving forward. Sure, this year threw us curveballs, but we’ve cracked every challenge it pitched our way. The PFC crew’s got the next decade on lock, with a sustainable game plan to protect Paros’ native vines and the Cyclades’ one-of-a-kind winemaking legacy.

Times have changed, and we vine growers need to stay on our toes all year round. Over the last 5 years, the wine world has seen some seriously wild weather, nothing like the averages of the past four decades. This kind of thing usually messes with the quality of the grapes we get and throws our little ecosystem out of whack.

The last two years have been especially dry, with less than 250mm of rainfall per year, and this has significantly impacted our 2023 crop, causing a substantial 60% reduction. Considering most of our vineyards aren't hooked up to sprinklers, our main mission was just to prevent the situation from worsening, with various pests and diseases lurking about.

The vines decided to take it slow this year, with buds and blooms showing up 10-15 days later than in 2022. June was relatively cool, with temperatures not exceeding 30°C and clouds taking center stage. So, things were looking like a late harvest year. But guess what? July brought a 12-day heatwave with temps around 40°C, and that turned the whole game around. We ended up starting the harvest only a week later than last year.

Our P-F-C crew had a game plan, organized around the three ripening zones Paros serves up. First up, we hit the old Monemvassia vines on the coastal South-Southwest side on August 8th. Two weeks later, it was time to tackle the Mandilaria vines in the same area. Then, on August 27th, we headed to the East-Northeast part of the island, between 50 and 150 meters up, for some action on Monemvassia fields. Finally, on September 7th, we trekked up to the 400-450 meter-high mountain terraces to grab what we could from the white grapes. We had to hang on a bit for the Mandilaria grapes to hit their prime, and on September 14th, reaching the ideal phenolic maturity, we went in for the kill, picking only the best from the low altitudes in the E-NE region. The last grapes to hit the crates on 21st September were those old, ungrafted field blends of Monemvassia-Mandilaria on the mountain. We weren't taking any chances with weather surprises.

We've had a sneak taste of many of our batches after they wrapped up their boozy fermentation dance, and we're betting that the 2023 wines will bring some new flavors to the SEIRADI collection. You can expect a creamy mid-palate and a complex, lingering aftertaste.

Stay tuned to our P-F-C JOURNAL on the web for more juicy updates about our upcoming releases and what's popping in our cellar.

The vineyard vibes in 2022 were all over the place, with yields ranging from a whopping 11 tons per hectare for the young irrigated vines to a more modest 5 tons per hectare for the seasoned pros up in the mountainous terraces. Mother Nature decided to play hard to get, giving us a dry winter and a no-show in late spring rain. Those scorching daily temperatures hinted that harvest season was coming early, especially for those vines that liked to bask in the sun.

But let's talk about the real MVP #not of 2022: the grape berry moth. These little guys threw a party and invited their friends, causing quite a ruckus, especially for the Mandilaria grape crew.

Now, if we had to pick one game-changer for PFC's 2022 vintage, it wouldn't be the weather or the yields. Nope, it'd be the launch of our new wine series. Picture this: a brand-new, kinda temporary winery that had to be up and running by the end of July. A dream team of engineers and tech wizards made sure it happened on time.

Our PFC crew was armed with next-gen equipment, ready to rock those modern winemaking protocols. Sorting grapes was our jam – we wanted to reveal their true potential. And we played it safe, protecting those grapes from the big bad oxidation wolf at every step, from gentle crushing to juice recovery.

But here's the kicker: it was all about the people and the tech. We managed to create wines that scream "contemporary" while keeping that hometown pride intact. Aromas were on point, showing off each grape's personality without any funky fermenting business. The taste? Well, let's just say we found that perfect balance between zesty acidity, silky smoothness, and just the right amount of vigor.

Now, we're gearing up for next year's adventures, and it's all about digging deep into Paros' rich soil mosaic. We can't wait to uncover what treasures lie beneath.