QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT
The Denomination of Origin Tierra León, which has been operating under that name since the last of November, renounced the Denomination of Origin Tierra de León, closed the 2018 harvest with a total volume of 3,711,792 kilos of qualified grapes , which is an increase of 181.7% over 2017, which will be remembered as the worst ever in the production area of the south of the province: 1,317,763 kilograms collected, with a decrease of 68.7% compared to Those of more than 3.7 million kilos surpass all the calculations of the Technical Services of the Regulatory Council, which in no case foreseen to reach that amount as a consequence of the damage caused to the strains by the disastrous frosts of the end of April and whose total recovery did not seem possible at least until the 2020 harvest.
In view of the figures, everything seems to indicate that the vineyard could probably recover its productive capacity from the harvest of 2019. The notable increase in production over initial forecasts undoubtedly overly prudent is due to several circumstances, such as the higher volume of the grape in the northern zone, the Valdevimbre environment and even Los Oteros, where the vines were most affected; the important increase of the white varieties Albarín and Verdejo and the better behavior of the Mencía inks, which is main in the varietal consideration of the regulations, and especially of the Tempranillo, authorized and usually relegated in the vinification process in this by preference of the processors with respect to the monovarietals of the autochthonous vineyards. However, the performance of the Prieto Picudo, even above the forecasts, was more contained.
The progression of the Albarín , which reached 427,343 kilos (94,488 in 2017), is especially striking comparing with 2014 because it did not go lower, only 181,715 were collected. The consolidation of the vineyards, most of them still very young, and of the grafts practiced on other strains, fundamentally of Verdejo (215,380 kilos against 388,351 of 2015, for example) explain that circumstance, enormously satisfactory for the Regulatory Council for its defense of the organoleptic values of this unique and practically exclusive variety of this production area, in which it already comfortably exceeds the 70 hectares of vineyards. In the percentage distribution of production by variety, Prieto Picudo accounted for 74.68%, compared to only 1.13% for Mencía, also main, and 6.65% for Tempranillo, secondary, as well as Garnacha , which disappears as a reference in this vintage. Among the whites, the native Albarín wine producer (11.51%) already doubles the Verdejo (5.80%), which is also considered as the main one, the same as the Godello, of which 8,480 kilos were certified. The complementary Malvasía and Palomino do not appear with this vintage as references in the area.
In view also of the figures, one of the challenges imposed by the Regulatory Council of the Denomination of Origin León is to promote the most notable increase in the productive area (782.22 hectares on 1,322.74 registered), although it has increased in ten hectares over the 2016, which is the last one that can be taken as a reference, to avoid the loss of that high quality grape.