Viticulture is a key factor for Antonio Sarrión. The techniques used for pruning, vine shoot selection, grape bunch thinning and even plots with alternative crops, all give rise to low yields.

“The vine-grower’s way of working and thinking was, at the beginning, a real headache. I remember the first green-harvest. The workers just didn’t understand why we had to remove bunches from the Bobal vines. I had to go in front showing them what to do and then go over what they had already done later in the afternoon, as they would gradually start to leave more bunches unpicked. But anyway, everything has been very positive, now they are aware of the quality you can get by carrying out theses operations and they feel part of it”, he stated.

For Antonio Sarrión, one of Mustiguillo’s most important foundation stones is “the dedication and care we give our vineyards. I’m sure that about 90 percent of all bodegas say that, but here we mean it”, he stated. “I pride myself on knowing how to prepare, how to be patient and how to choose only those brunches that are going to improve our wines and of being very sure about leaving those bunches that are not going to be of any use to us on the vine, however much it might hurt and make us unhappy”, explained the vine-grower while stating that he does not considerer himself a defender of random strokes of luck. “Ever since I started in this profession I’ve never believed in the sheer chance factor, without conscientious preparation, of a vineyard yielding good quality grapes. I always tell everybody that when September comes round and with our homework done, the weather will decide when the harvest has to take place, and we would have provided the quality”.

The harvest at Mustiguillo is carried out by hand and is very selective. “We don’t just go to a plot and sweep the place clean; quite the contrary, we have learnt to harvest by phases and we go back however many times necessary to pick the grapes at their optimum ripening point”, the vine-grower revealed.

Once in the bodega, Antonio Sarrión advocates the philosophy of “preserving what has come from the vineyard. We try to work with the utmost rigorousity and the know-how this profession demands, but as far as I’m concerned you still have to add the most important aspect: feeling. You have to be able to feel what is deep inside every single grain so that it later appears in the wine”.

As a result, at Mustiguillo, every process is carried out separately as it would make no sense to combine all of the grapes together after such a selective harvest. “We carry out 40 different winemaking processes every harvest and in the end we only have three wines on the market. We try to think holistically with each winemaking process, knowing that the Bobal variety is at the heart of our wines and that the rest help to shape its bucolic aspects and tannicity, without losing, for one single moment, its originality” Sarrión stated.