Harvest Season in Empordà: The Most Delicious Time of Year Near Girona
Discover why harvest season in Empordà is one of the best times to visit Girona, from vineyards and local produce to traditional Catalan food and wine.
September is one of the most rewarding months to visit Girona. The summer crowds begin to ease, the temperatures become comfortable again, and the countryside around the city enters the most important period of its year: the harvest.
The grape harvest — the grape harvest — is the moment when everything a grower has done over twelve months is decided. When to pick is the single most important decision of the year, and it comes down to days. For visitors, it is also the most interesting time to be in this region. The cellars are working at full tilt, the air around them smells of fermenting must, and the landscape between Girona and the French border looks the way it only looks in September and October.
Why the Empordà Is Special
Between Girona, the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean lies the Empordà, one of Catalonia's most distinctive agricultural regions. The climate, the poor soils and the tramuntana — the north wind that comes down off the mountains — are hard on a vine, and that is precisely why the wine here tastes of the place it comes from. Low yields, healthy vineyards, concentrated fruit.
Much of what visitors eat and drink in Girona begins its journey in this countryside. The harvest is the few weeks each year when that relationship is visible from the road.
September Means Harvest
The harvest is not a single day. In the Empordà it runs from late August into October, because the whites and the sparkling base wines come first, while the reds need several more weeks on the vine.
Picking early means a fresher, lighter wine with more acidity. Picking late means riper fruit and more alcohol. Between those two points there is a window of a few days, and a grower reads it by walking the rows, tasting the grapes and watching the forecast. Then everything moves at once: the fruit reaches the cellar within hours of being cut, gets sorted, and the first must is fermenting the same evening.
The Consell Regulador of the DO Empordà presented its forecast for this year in late August, and the outlook was good. Despite very little rain over the preceding months, the vines and the fruit developed well, and the final volume will depend on the weather of the coming weeks. That uncertainty comes with the territory: every harvest here gives a slightly different wine. This year's harvest program began on August 22, and the cellars have been working steadily since.
Grenache and Carignan
The DO Empordà brings together around forty wineries, and roughly two thirds of the vineyard area is planted with native and traditional varieties. That share has been rising for years, because growers in the Empordà have deliberately committed to garnatxa and carinyena rather than to international varieties.
Both have grown here for centuries because they can handle what this landscape does to a vine. An Empordà wine experience is the most direct way to understand why that matters: the wine in the glass comes from vines you can see from the road. The region also holds on to its sweet garnatxa, a traditional dessert wine that far too few visitors ever try.
The Season Arrives on the Market
Wine attracts attention, but grapes are only part of the story. In these same weeks the market in Girona fills with figs, grapes, peppers, tomatoes, aubergines and the last of the late-summer crops, and the mushrooms begin to arrive. Restaurant menus follow them: from summer salads to slower cooking.
Joining the Harvest Yourself
Through September and October, cellars along the DO Empordà wine route open their doors and let visitors take part: picking the fruit, treading grapes the traditional way, and following the first must from vine to tank. Times and availability vary from one cellar to the next and are arranged with them directly, so it is worth planning ahead.
There is also the DO Empordà Harvest Festival, which has been running for over fifty years and moves to a different municipality each year, with grape picking and pressing, food stands and wines from across the appellation.
Final Thoughts
One of Girona's greatest advantages is where it sits. You can spend the morning in the old town and the afternoon among the vineyards, and that explains a large part of why the city has become such a respected culinary destination.
Anyone arriving in September or October is arriving at the best possible moment. The vineyards are working, the region is at its most beautiful, and the food and the wine on the table come from the same few kilometers of countryside.
The harvest lasts a few weeks. The wine it makes lasts much longer.