In this edition, we continue our reporting on the current season in the northern hemisphere and this week we feature the harvests in Morocco and Mexico. In addition, don’t miss the dates for the virtual ARRA field days.

Morocco

Next year will be the first year of commercialization of the ARRA varieties at Delassus. At present, the ARRA Sugar Drop™ and ARRA Passion Fire™ are still under evaluation in their trial blocks. Mohamed Nafide, Director of Production at Delassus reports, “Looking at ARRA varieties, the results on the test blocks are encouraging and the new plantation of ARRA Passion Fire is going well in Taroudant and Marrakech.”

ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30)

Showing great promise; ARRA Sugar Drop

ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)

Delassus ARRA Passion Fire; Grapa protocol has proven to be successful and the results are very satisfying.

Early Sweet™

Early Sweet vineyard on Tassoultant farm in the Marrakech region; great grapes and a great season. The weather was in favour for the growers and the results can clearly be seen.
Early Sweet from Delassus vineyards is picked, packed and ready to ship. There is no doubt that the years of experience and improvement of the protocol by Delassus' Director of Production, Mohamed Nafide and his team, have proven themselves and the results are clear.

ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)

ARRA Passion Fire: Once again EHM Farm Manager, Miloud Ezzyany, demonstrated his implementation of new variety protocols in which he brought the grapes to a level of perfection.

ARRA Sweeties™ (ARRA 15)

The second year of production is the challenging year when the grower is loading the vines in order to keep the balance between high production and high quality. As can be seen in the picture below, there is no doubt that Miloud succeeded very well in keeping the balance and to produce outstanding quality ARRA 15.

ARRA Sweeties; the perfect balance

ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30)

Les Vergers du Soleil’s ARRA Sugar Drop can easily be marked as showing the characteristics of this variety at their best in terms of quantity, quality and berry shape. There is no doubt that Rafe Shabaily, Managing Director of Les Vergers du Soleil, brought out the best in ARRA Sugar Drop.

ARRA Sugar Drop: pictures taken a few days before harvest
Start of harvesting
ARRA Sugar Drop; 450-gram punnets ready for the shelves of Marks & Spencer, UK

ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)

Stunning ARRA Passion Fire pictured here one week before harvest. The uniform colour, berry shape and size is remarkable. The secret of keeping the number of berries per bunch is the key for its success.

Mexico

Videxport is the largest Mexican exporter of the Giumarra companies with excellent relationships between the Giumarra and Corsaro families for many years. Videxport’s Director of Production, Victor Romero has improved the grapes’ quality with hard work and perseverance and has brought the varieties to perfection.

ARRA Sugar Drop™ (ARRA 30)

Victor describes the ARRA 30 as follows, “Synonymous of high yields and best eating grape in the world.”

Videxport owner, Gilberto Salazar, has produced first-class quality ARRA Sugar Drop, which is most definitely deserving of the decorative packaging.

ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)

Victor says of this beautiful variety, “The size and the incredible colour, together with the flavour, make it unique.”

The high yield, uniformity, berry firmness and size definitely give ARRA Passion Fire its first class quality.

Early Sweet™

Gilberto (pictured above) has every right to be happy with his Early Sweet. The outstanding quality of high yield, and large, uniform, crunchy berries is not an easy task to achieve. Definitely Victor and his team performed an amazing job. As Victor relates, "This is our main variety and we love it more every year."

Pablo Borquez, President of Campos Borquez, summarizes the season so far, ” We have already finished our Early Sweet harvest where we produced over 400,000 boxes (18lbs) all exported to the United States, with excellent results. We have already started the harvest of ARRA 30 and ARRA 29, so far so good.”

ARRA Passion Fire™ (ARRA 29)

Ripening early, with compact bunches and uniform berry size, Campos Borquez’s ARRA Passion Fire achieved a stunning, shining, red colour which easily beat the colour of Flame Seedless.

Early Sweet™

Over the last few years, the Campos Borquez technical team has produced great commercial Early Sweet crops that are superior to Perlette and have succeeded to establish the variety as the best early white grape coming out of Mexico.

Pablo's son, Alvaro, checks out the Early Sweet vineyards

ARRA Virtual Field Days - Save the dates

We are delighted to share with you the dates of the virtual ARRA field days which will take place as follows:

Early virtual field days – 29-30 July

Main virtual field days – 31 August, 1st September

For more information, please contact: info@grapaes.com

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