SEPTIMA Winery’s vineyards extend over 185 ha at 1050 meters above sea level. Currently, 135 ha of land located in the highlands of Agrelo are in full production (Ruta Internacional N.º 7, km 6,5 Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza).
The property is located at 1050 meters above sea level. This altitude determines a very good heliophany and temperature range in our vineyards. Both qualities allow for the production of wines with a sound structure, resulting from grapes with good acidity, low pH and a high concentration of aromas and colors.
Our soils consists of disintegrated rock and mineral material from the Andes mountain range which have been transported and deposited by the action of gravity, thaw, water and wind. The soil texture is mostly sandy loam with abundant pebbles in deeper layers. Despite the fact that the soils’ origin are very similar, soil texture and stratification is quite heterogeneous due to the way in which materials have been deposited by the water and the wind.
Irrigation: The irrigation water for our vineyards is extracted from three wells of 240 meters deep. It is then pressurized and distributed through a drip irrigation system. Water quality is excellent: 800 to 1000 micromhos/cm.
Since our vineyard has a relatively steep slope, it has a low risk of late frosts.
Hail protection: 100 % of the vineyard is protected with anti-hail nets.
Our vineyard has 153 ha which have been trained in high trellis, pruned in string of pythons and irrigated with a drip system. The current aim is to cultivate grapes for the production of wines level "A", "B" and "C". To meet this objective, we are currently managing the vineyard so as to homogenize our plots as much as possible, since, given the natural heterogeneity of soils, it is normal to find some areas that show differences in vigor. The weakest areas, apart from threatening profitability, produce grapes that ripen at different times and, therefore, affect wine quality. Vigorous areas not only require higher compensation efforts such as pruning, disbudding and leave thinning among others, but can also lead to herbaceous aromas and flavors, lack of color due to excessive shade, grapes with high pH or dilution of aromas. By unifying the vineyards as much as possible, we get grapes with a better quality and a more uniform ripening.
To achieve this goal, we use the techniques of pruning; shoot thinning, and segmented fertilization, cluster thinning at veraison and leaf thinning in very wet and rainy seasons.
Harvest:
The hand-picking begins in February, with varieties for "cuvée" such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Then, white grapes are harvested for “still wines" and finally the grapes for the production of red wines. The harvest ends in late April, when the grapes obtained in cold areas of Valle del Uco enter the winery. The date and time of the harvest depends on the future use of the grape (the quality of the final product) and also on each variety’s maturing time. Maturity is determined by periodically measuring indicators of maturity of field-sampled grapes such as sugar concentration (degree Brix), total acidity and pH.