EXPERIMENTAL TESTS
Nowadays, after some years cultivating some experimental trials in common with the Researching Service of Technical Agriculture of Castile and León, maintained by the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry of Castilla y León Government.
The older of them is about testing the differences between same plants of a unique variety, of the same variety being part of the same clone, or even depending of the rootstock on which they are placed. Taking as a basis a plot of vineyard in a very similar area to any other area within the BIERZO area, with no differences among them about altitude, terrain, sunshine or anything like that. Then, we design one plantation in which there are ten similar blocks of the same variety of the plant, of the same clone, or even, depending of the rookstock, based on where they were placed.
Then we have different rootstocks: some of them strong, others measures to reduce vegetation and others even resistant to the limestone and, depending on them, the plantation is carried out. We have in the same field an area in which we experiment with different kind of scenarios based on the proximity of the vineyards: we plant everyone at one meter, one meter and half and one meter and sixty centimeters of distance between them. And notable differences are observed depending on which were the plant or the other one. To sum up, is clear that the next step is the processing of every plant apart from every rootstock to be able to see which one is the best option to our area.
In the second of the tests, and by the way the younger of them (we are in the fourth year since it was planted), we planted eight different clones of the Estaladiña´s variety. A variety which is on the verge of extinction in our area: nevertheless it can produce excellent wines…
