The Port Wine Fest will take place at the riverside of Vila Nova de Gaia, right on the dock area and it will be a good opportunity for the Port lovers to try the recently declared 2011 Vintage Port. Few dozens of producers will be there to share opinions, ideas and to convert even more visitors into Port.

Besides Port, visitors will also have the chance to try dishes prepared by renowned Chefs, to participate in workshops about Port and Douro and to attend tastings of the producers’ Ports. To take full advantage of the Port Wine Fest I recommend you to check the full program of the Port Wine Fest.

After visiting the festival, we encourage you to visit Quevedo’s lodge in Rua de Santa Marinha 77, 200 meters away from the festival and listen to the Portuguese traditional Fado music while enjoy a last glass of Port.

See you there,

Oscar

What you will read next is probably the best ever recipe for a Rosé Port cocktail. The first and only time I tried this cocktail was in Salt Lake City, two weeks ago, on a hot Summer evening, right before starting what we think was the first ever Port Wine tasting, with winemaker present, in Utah. By the way, this somehow far state in the west of the US is a great place, beautiful landscape and really nice people. Put in on your places to visit next time you travel to the US.

Try it at home, even if you are not able to add the CO2 and leave your comments. Other Rose Port cocktails available at C. da Silva – Dalva Port.

2010 can be a good year for planting after the long period of rains in the Douro valley and around all Portugal. The soil has plenty of water; so much that it is actually saturated and all the rain that falls goes directly down hill until it reaches the Douro river. In any case, we will probably need to irrigate this young vines later. But instead of starting in June, we may only start in late July or early August.

During the last days the weather has been dry and the sky is nearly always clean. I welcome warm weather and with low humidity, it’s budbreak time and vines need to warm up for bringing us good grapes next September.

Oscar

Today we have been making white Port Wine. The grapes that we were harvesting during the week-end were transformed into a healthy and aromatic must during the last days, which was ready for the fortification this afternoon. We are considering to follow Andy Velebil’s suggestion, regarding the ageing of our 2009 white Port Wine. He says he loves white colheitas! Thank you Andy for that!  Check the video right in the moment we were adding the brandy! Lot of noise at the winery… sorry!

Vinexpo is over and I am back to S. João da Pesqueira. I have spent five very intense days in Bordeaux, where I had never been before. I just had time to visit one Chateau, Luchey-Halde, where took place the winery bloggers meeting (BTW, a really nice event, masterly organized).

From Vinexpo I bring some new friends from all around the world, a bunch of new wines tasted and the hope we can find an importer in France.

As in Prowein, in Vinexpo the IVDP also invited a sommelier, this time Stéphane Profit, to lead Port Wine tastings. These tastings took place at the IVDP’s stand, during the first four days of the show. Different wines from generally all producers were tasted and commented by over 30 people each session.

As the Rosé Port is now a hot subject, I asked Mr. Profit to share with us his opinion about it. Some say it is the prostitution of Port, others just love it. Lets see what Stéphane Profit thinks.

Oscar Quevedo

Editor’s note: early May we had the pleasure to receive the visit of Mr. Roy Hersh, from For the Love of Port, during the Fortification Tour 2009. On Mr. Hersh’s newsletter of June 2009, which is always one of the best sources of information about Port, he comments on our recent launch Quevedo Rosé. Please read below his notes. Oscar

From what I have been told, this wine is now available in Portugal, The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. I tried it while visiting the Quevedo family and it is a very sweet version and especially if mixed in a Port Tonic this should be a great success. This was the third Port producer’s Pink/Rose Port I’ve tried so far.

In a future newsletter, I will recount our recent visit to Quevedo during the 2009 Fortification Tour in May. We had a really terrific time at their property, which to put this in perspective, is very close to Quinta de Vargellas in the Douro Superior. The wines and especially their Ports, from LBVs dating back to 1968, a few Vintage Ports, a very solid 10 year old Tawny and a handful of Colheitas too, were a tremendous and pleasant surprise!

Not prepared to release my tasting note yet, but I must say that the 2007 Quevedo Vintage Port that I had that afternoon, as well as the bottle I tasted blind over three days, was mighty impressive. This is a Port shipper to keep an eye on. I can only hope that they will find an importer in the USA!Speaking of which, I believe they are coming over to America next month to partake in the American Wine Bloggers Conference. If you have not visited the Quevedo blog as of yet … go check it out.

Last and definitely not least: There is more great news from the Quevedo family. They will be releasing their first Colheitas to the aforementioned marketplaces, which will include the 1992, 1994 and 1995 vintage Colheitas. We tried others as well, going back to 1968, but that is a story for another day. My favorite of the new releases was the 1994 which was wonderful for such a youngster!

We have been preparing this moment for a while. All started in mid September 2008 during the harvest. Claudia and me were discussing about the best moment to start harvesting. At the same time we both wanted to try our winemaking capabilities by making our own version of a Rosé Port. This is a easy-drinking and refreshing Port, with which we were identified.

We knew that our vineyard Quinta da Trovisca would give us the best grapes for our purpose: young vines at an altitude of over 1800 feet; possibility to achieve over ripeness maintaining a good acidity. But the most important reason to choose Quinta da Trovisca’s grapes was the varietals we decided to use for our Rosé Port: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Sousão. If the first two varietals are consensual due to their flowers and fruity flavors, sousão is more mineral and well known by its coloring “skills”. At the end, in the final blending, We decided to use 30% of sousão, which could give us a plus of acidity, 40% touriga nacional and 30% touriga franca.

Our job is now finished, Quevedo Rosé is ready to be enjoyed with your best friends!

Click here for the Press Release of the Quevedo Rosé.

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Quevedo with tonic

I probably have to apologize to those more conservative about Port. To those more liberal, I must confess and share my experience. I am not quite sure if this is the best place to talk about cocktails with Port, but as we promised to share all our wine related experiences in the Quevedo’s web, I cannot turn back now (though I hope my father does not read this!).

Well, last week we had some friends at our place and we handled a wine tasting before dinner. We had finished the dessert and we were wondering about what to drink next. It was a warm and very dry night. We started with wine and we wanted to finish with wine. Wasn’t 82 ºF enough to forget Port? No, not enough. I looked at the fridge and could find some cans of tonic. In the shelve there was a bottle of Quevedo Reserve Ruby almost full. Maybe you are asking yourselves “is not Portonic with dry white Port?”.

Are you sure you can drink tonic with a ruby Port? (someone asked me). Yes guys, lets put it together. Ice, a lot of ice, 2/3 tonic and 1/3 of Port, this order. My first impression was quite tough: this is not Port, is like a random cocktail I could find in the worst bar. I am killing my business. But then, maybe 5 seconds later, people started to say: “not bad”, “I could order this in a disco”, “ohh, it is cool”. And I also started to like it. We discussed for some time and we concluded that this could be a nice drink to young people.

I will try again!

Óscar Quevedo