Archive for October, 2008
Harvest is Finally Over in The Quevedo Estates
We can finally say that we have finished our harvest. Yesterday we made the last Port of the season from the last grapes that were still fermenting, 10 days after we had finished to pick-up grapes. As we use to say in the Douro: up to the wash of the boxes is vintage!
This year the [...]
Top 10 Things a Winemaker Hates
1. When the grape truck breaks down on a rainy day
2. The cigarette smoke from a winery worker while unloading grapes
3. Finding the scissors stuck in the gears of the destemmer after being hidden in the box of harvested grapes
4. Cell phone falling into the fermentation vat
5. Someone diving into the lagar
6. A little hole [...]
Who Is Oscar Quevedo?
Almost three months after we have started blogging, is probably time to write a bit about myself. I should first start to say that my parents decided to give me the same first name of my father. Thus, both of us are Oscar Quevedo and, as you can imagine, it is not unusual to have [...]
Birthday Gifts: This Year, A Book; The Helicopter Will Come Next
I received a book today, two weeks after my birthday. I could say it is gorgeous, but exact word may be tasty, or something that tastes so good that one wants to save it for somo special occasion. As I don’t know when will that occasion come, I didn’t resist nor felt sorry: I opened [...]
In Porto, Art & Culture Should Go With Port Wine, Not With Whisky
The Miguel Bombarda Street, in the center of city of Porto, is known by its high concentration of art galleries. Gradually, during last decade, houses and old shops were remodeled into areas dedicated to the art. But just lately some effort has been put in the promotion and advertising of this space. A sign of [...]
The Harvest 2008: How The City Guys Saw It In Quevedo
Editor’s note: Since 2002, my friends from University have come to our winery one week-end during the harvest, helping us to pick-up grapes, to bring it to the winery and also to make wine. This year the ritual was the same and we asked João Sarmento to write about that week-end and post it in [...]
Treading Grapes in the Lagar - Traditional Vinification in the Douro
Harvest in the Douro is synonym of treading grapes in the lagar. As João Ribeiro has explained, the last week-end of September was time to meet our friends and have fun while harvesting grapes and help to make wines in Quevedo! On Saturday night we went to Quinta das Aranhas (in Ervedosa do Douro), an [...]
Traditional Port Wine Auction in the Douro Valley - No Bottles From Quevedo
Port wine auctions are one of the traditions of Vindouro, the wine fair which takes place every year the first days of September in S. João da Pesqueira, the heart of the Douro. I can easily remember, as it was yesterday, the cloister of the Palácio de Sidrô or the municipal theater full of wine [...]
Quevedo was founded in 1991 as a family owned business in the heart of the Douro valley, responding to the needs of the generations that preceded the associate founders. These ancestors were passionately dedicated to their vineyards and to the culture that surrounded the production of wine. Consequently, the company was created as a seamless marriage between the initial phase of production and the promotion and selling of their wines. Currently, the estate is comprised of 100 hectares located in the regions of Cima-Corgo and Douro Superior, producing both red and port wines from only the five traditional port grapes Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão and Tinta Barroca. 