It does not matter whether we are talking about prunes, almonds or apples, bud break always means the beginning of a new cycle for the crop and is now starting in our vineyards. Not surprisingly, the first vines to break are the young vines located in Quinta das Mós, Douro Superior, where we have been irrigating for over one month. As you may know, in the Douro valley irrigation is only allowed until the fifth year of life of the vine. After this period, only under special circumstances, which have to be previously approved by the IVDP – Port Wine Institute, which it is not the case for these vines.

Temperatures this Winter have been in line with the long term average, actually, in January and February warmer that the average, as we can see on Portuguese Meteorology Institute. At the end of March, bud break arrived, maybe  a little bit earlier that it uses to come. With a growing curiosity about how generous are vines going to be, we have now to wait few weeks to see the number and size of grapes of the crop. However, this could be already checked with the help of a microscope. Anyways, I will keep you posted about new developments.

Cheers,

Oscar

After over two months without seeing rain, we had finally a week-end of rain in the Douro. It was not enough to offset the long period of drought we have been facing, but it is a nice beginning for what it can be the next weeks. As the saying puts it “April showers”, it is not yet to late for the vineyards and soil to rehydrate should we have a long period of rain in April.

I have recently heard on the Portuguese press that this has been the driest Winter of the last 80 years. If you look at the numbers, you get a better impression of what is happening: from October till March it rained in the Douro valley one third of the long term average. Fortunately, we had a wet November, raining 71mm, when the long term average is 65mm. But we are still 250mm of rain below the average and this can be a big problem should we have a Summer as hot as it normally is. It is certainly not fully explained by the drought, but wine prices are already rising, and quickly.

Oscar

Quinta Senhora do Rosário – December 2008

Quinta Senhora do Rosário – February 2012

What is wrong with these two photos? Once again it is all about the weather. For almost three months that we have clear sky, with plenty of sunshine, envying many Summers in Portugal. The photo on the left is from December 2008 while the photo on the right is from yesterday.

We can see that the roads show a lighter brown in yesterday’s photo, due to the long period without rain. There is no weeds in the soil as there is no water on the surface. There are still some humidity in the soil, at over one meter deep, but with the Spring arriving, bringing higher temperatures, this humidity will slowly reduce, increasing the risk of drought for the vines. Some producers are already irrigating the young vines, while small fires emergence after people burn old vine shooting. Things are not easy over here unless you come for tourism.

Oscar

Phylloxera set a new paradigm in the viticulture of the Douro valley and in almost every vine growing country. Since 1850 that this tiny insect, phylloxera, that feeds up from the leaves and roots of ungrafted vines, changed the way grape producers are growing vines. Until then vines were planted in the soil, growing their own roots, which were vulnerable to phylloxera.

In order to avoid roots to be destroyed by the insect, farmers started to plant a plant with stronger and resistant roots to phylooxera, in which would later be grafted a scion of the grape vine desired, like Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz or any other. The art of grafting is very important in viticulture, as it creates the womb in which grapevine will be able to grow. What I want to share with you today is the way grafting is done. There are few steps that you must know as you will see in the video above:

1. rootstock has to be planted at least one year before grafting
2. the best moment for grafting is few weeks before vine begins new growth
3. use a two bud stick scion, upward-facing, for grafting
4. make a horizontal cut on stump around 10 to 20 cm below ground level for the union to be covered with earth
5. make a perpendicular cut on the rootstock to insert the scion
6. wrap carefully the union between the rootstock and scion with raffia
7. push down the scion to make sure it is well tight
8. cover it with earth and irrigate every other week for the next 6 months with few liters of water

Questions? I can imagine you will have some!

Oscar

There are some developments in the last stage of the grape ripeness, few days before harvest starts. Last Sunday night it rained heavily in the Douro valley. This rain was very welcome as it did not damaged the berries and irrigated the dry soils of the vineyards. With this extra humidity in the soil, grapes will last a little bit longer in the vines before we start collecting them, what shall happen right in the beginning of September.

Due to the very hot days of the last weeks, with no rainfall, this unexpected water will stop some hydric stress that vines could be suffering, at the same time that it allows the phenolic ripeness to finish. Some producers have already started harvesting white grapes but as far as I know no the red grapes. We shall not begin before September 5th. But as usual, I will keep you posted about what is going on in the Douro! Just stay tuned!

Oscar

After one month of absence due to my wedding, which was in July 15th, I am now back with fresh news from the vineyards.

As usual, we make our first maturity control on August 10th and this year was not different. This first contact with the new grapes reveals a first rough idea of when we will start harvesting this year. Some of you may have heard that the very warm Spring of 2011 culminated in an early fruit setting and quick maturity during the first weeks. In some regions of Spain and France, producers plan to start harvesting in the end of August, beginning of September, 2 weeks earlier than normal. Also in Portugal the maturity is ahead of the traditional schedule. In Alentejo, the south of Portugal, there are grape producers already harvesting.

For us it is still too early to start harvesting. First, because this first control showed that we are still around one month ahead of a full and complete maturity. And second, because grapes for Port Wine normally are harvested slightly over ripened, to achieve flavors of prunes, figs or blackberries.

If you read our previous post about the mildew on the vineyards, you may be wondering whether this constraint will affect the production. Indeed, it will be necessary to take extra attention to the grapes that are collected. There are still some dry bunches on the vines together with ripe and healthy ones that are in good conditions. But these dry ones must be avoided, removed and left on the ground. Otherwise, they would give a vegetal, woody flavor to the wine that we don’t want at all. In some bunches, the top is fresh and good while the bottom is dry and bad. So an even more careful selection of the grapes collected is going to be necessary.

The first estimate for the beginning of the harvest in our main property, Quinta Vale d’Agodinho, is the 12th of September, or earlier if temperatures continue on the up the 30s Cº and if it doesn’t rain. These are the figures of the first maturity control:

Alcohol on August 10th, Beginning of the harvest starting

2007 10.49%, September 19th

2009 11.86%, September 14th

2010 10.05%, September 18th

2011 12.07% ?

As usual, I welcome very much your questions and comments!

Oscar

Growing grapes is far from being a predictable process as we rely a lot on weather conditions. Sometimes too much. So much that adverse weather can destroy what we think is a good crop. And that is what happened with our Tinta Roriz. While we were at Vinexpo, a trade fair in Bordeaux, between the 19th and the 24th of June, our grapes were attacked by mildew. A first forecast points to over 50% loss on Tinta Roriz, around 15% to Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Sousão. The most affected vineyard was Quinta da Trovisca where some vines lost all the bunches as the photos show.

My father says that this situation reminds him the harvest of 1988, when also a big part of the crop was lost to mildew. I was only 5 years old at that time and can’t remember these troubles. But I well remember that four years ago, in 2007, there was also a mildew attack all over the Douro, and that did not detained us to make one if not the best Port of the decade. This means that mildew will not affect quality, as long as we take some cautions and carefully select the bunches. Actually, it must increase the quality of the grapes left in the vine, as there are fewer and the vine will focus on ripening very well the fruit that it can still grow.

From what I have talked with other producers, it seems that mildew affect vines everywhere in the Douro. I can imagine that few will admit it, and will swear that everything is perfect with there vines. But what looked like a generous crop a couple of months ago, seems like a reduced one now. And this reduction in the quantity will very likely increase the quality of both Port and Douro wines, bring prices up at the same time, for both wines.

Leave your comments and questions, I’ll be happy to help you!

Oscar

Editor’s note: One of these days, I was going with Luiz Alberto from Porto to the Douro when we started talking about the eruption of the Icelandic vulcano Eyjafjallajökull in April last year and its effects on grapes ripening in the Douro. Other discussions followed. Suddenly, I challenged Luiz to write a paper about how climate change is going to affect the viticulture in the Douro. Here are Luiz’s thoughts, originally posted on his blog, My Wine Studies. It’s a long one, but very worth to read. Oscar

When dealing with climate change, natural climate variations should never be discarded. There is  “climate variability”, which is the change in the weather behavior at a certain location from time to time. However, climate change due to human   activities is happening and will have a large impact and many implications everywhere on the planet. The world’s major wine-producing countries – Italy, France, Spain, USA and Australia – are all at risk. Vines are extremely sensitive   to the numerous changes associated with climate change, but this paper will have the subject under a microscope and only discuss how it’s going to affect viticulture in the Douro Valley (and it assumes a ‘business as usual’   approach). This discussion is about what needs to be done in a scenario where the temperatures are higher (with an increase in frequency of extremely hot days), the droughts are more severe, and there’s increased surface   evaporation. Efforts need to be made to keep viticulture and winemaking viable and profitable in this traditional wine region.

Temperature change can have dramatic influence on grapevines and, in general, the solution for the higher temperatures has been simplified: “Go higher“ (either in altitude or in latitude) and the sweet spot for a certain grape variety will be re-stored. This rule certainly applies to the Douro   Valley, where the altitude of the vineyards can vary from about 300 feet ASL to almost 3,000 feet. The Douro has another important advantage over other wine regions:  Exposition to the sun is certainly another remedy for the problems that will be faced. A possible solution is abandoning the south facing vineyards that are too hot  (or try some dramatic canopy management changes including shading) and replant on the cooler, north facing slopes. The Valley offers 360° of exposition, but early adaptation to the new scenario is going to be key to a successful transition (and such a transition requiring new plantings will take years). Most of the new vineyards in the Douro Superior  (where the rainfall level is 1/3 of the Baixo-Corgo) are already north facing.  For example, the famous vineyards Quinta de Vargellas and Vesúvio are both north facing.

In the wine industry things move really slowly (it takes a few years for a vine to start producing wine and many more before it starts making good wine), people have to start acting now. The rest of the world will be also responding to climate change. The efficiency of the   adaptation is crucial.  A region as traditional as the Douro needs to adapt quick and show flexibility. Some laws will become old and inappropriate. These laws will make no sense under the new environmental conditions and need to  be eliminated. For instance, there are significant physiological and morphological differences among Vitis vinifera varieties and the ones that are allowed (or recommended) to be planted need to be re-evaluated in over time. There are hundreds of grape varieties in Portugal alone. The ones that are less sensitive to hydric stress and high temperatures need to be favored against the ones that don’t perform as well under these conditions (such as Tinta Barroca ou Tinta Francisca. However, to mitigate  this issue, it’s also possible to use rootstocks that are  drought resistant (relatively speaking) and, because of that,  R110 is becoming more and more popular in the Douro. It was already used in the past (along with 1103P), but lately more and more producers want drought tolerant rootstocks, rather quantity or quality focused rootstocks.

Higher temperatures, in an already warm region like the Douro, will inevitably have some negative consequences in the   short term (different from a region, like the Mosel for  example, where the  extra heat is helping to bring a large  number of “great vintages” in the last  few decades): Fall  in values of total acidity (especially malic acid) and increase in sugar content (which in return will produce  more alcoholic wines). Harvesting earlier is a possibility to minimize these problems, but the result will be wines without complete phenolic maturity, with harsh and green   tannins. Again, other varieties (or clones of some of the existing varieties) and rootstocks with better resistance to droughts and higher temperatures will have to be   planted. These new plantings will better perform under these even warmer conditions.  Early-ripening grape varieties that are very susceptible to hydric stress may have serious problems being grown in some parts of the region. Canopy management could play a role, with less sunlight and more shading of fruit. However, increasing canopy size also means more dehydration, so this is really a double-edged sword solution to the problem.

But temperature is not the only direct effect of climate change:

• heavy precipitation events can cause damage (due to erosion) to the vineyards. Studies show that these events will become more frequent, making it unbearably expensive (and labor intensive) to repair the walls of the socalcos and patamares of the region.

• earlier budburst can have a major effect, increasing the risk of frost substantially in some varieties such as Tinto Cão. Moreover, if the season starts earlier, it will finish earlier, meaning that harvests will occur earlier and will take place at an even warmer month of the year. This may reduce the quality of the grapes, through a significant loss of water and volatile compounds. Harvesting at night could mitigate   this, though how does one dare harvest at night on such steep slopes?

• the dates between early (such as Bastardo and Tinta Barroca) and late-ripening varieties  (such as Tinto Cão) will be compressed. Since late-ripening   varieties are more sensitive to the increase in temperature than early-ripening varieties, there will be complications to manage the intake of fruit in the winery.

• rainfall is predicted to be more irregular in the Douro Valley with a consequent reduction in water   availability. It seems that there is a consensus that the need for irrigation in viticulture will increase with the warmer and drier conditions and with the more frequent droughts. Since irrigation in the Douro Valley is illegal today, the authorities are seriously considering a change of this law. It seems that the IVDP  (Instituto do Vinho do Porto) is open to analyze the possibility of allowing irrigation for certain cases where it  is proved that irrigation clearly produces better quality  grapes and wines. There are some vineyards where irrigation is already being tested. One example is Quinta de Ervamoira, from Adriano Ramos Pinto. Another is Quevedo that also have drip irrigation in one of their vineyards, Quinta das Olgas in the Douro Superior, since 2007. Although 4 years is a very short period, they could already see some vineyards performing better with irrigation, generating better quality grapes. One good example is the harvest of 2010. Part of the vineyard was irrigated while the other part not. The not irrigated vineyard in some cases couldn’t complete the ripening process, leaving many bunches completely shivered. The part that was irrigated produced healthy bunches with good concentration of anthocyanins and phenolic compounds, that delivered nice colors and flavors to the wines.

• while irrigation seems to be a solution to mitigate the problem with  more frequent and severe droughts, there’s a serious need to  work on measures to promote the   sustainability of the water supply for the entire  region.

The authorities and the people of Douro Valley need a coordinated effort to mitigate these adverse conditions. As Pancho Campo MW said  “Technology will have to be developed and adapted to confront   the consequences and impacts of climate change, looking for more efficient energy systems, reducing considerably the emissions of greenhouse gases,  designing new forms of  fuels, promoting recycling, reforestation, etc. The   international industry must invest in adaptation to new technologies that can help mitigate the effects of climate change. From the point of view of economy, new types of incentives, subsidies and tax deductions are to be   implemented, with economists, scientists and politicians working under a well coordinated effort.” Profitability ultimately drives the wine industry (or any industry for that matter), but showing that a winery is “doing its part” on   mitigation is essential as well. Consumers worldwide will be watching which policies are being implemented to deal with carbon dioxide emissions. The expectations are high and failure to meet them may cause a negative image for   the entire region. Not only there’s need to find solutions to adapt to the unfavorable conditions that the future may bring, but also to make every possible effort to choose the pathways that will lead to less drastic consequences.

By Luiz Alberto, from My Wine Studies

The heavy rains of the last days painted the Torto river of very unusual colors for this time of the year. This light brow/ golden color, that is in the origin of the name of the Douro river, which in Portuguese means golden, use to be seen during the winter, when the rains bring down the hill all that mud.

These days, is the Torto river which looks like the Douro river, or better, the golden river.

Oscar

During the last days, the weather in the Douro has been very unstable. It quickly changes from clear to a heavy storm, similar to tropical countries. Temperatures move between 15ºC and 28ºC in the middle of the afternoon. And when it rains it seems like it is going to be the end of the world. Instead of working as a slow irrigation to our vineyards, this rain creates little streams of water going downhill as you can see in this photo. As I enjoy very much storms, I love this weather, but it is not good for the vines.

With the flowering of the vines finished so early (in the middle of May for the vines around the river) we may have an early harvest this year. This is explained by the warm Spring we are having together with a generous irrigation of the soil. So if you plan to come to the Douro for the harvest, this year you may have to anticipate your trip in one or two weeks. But we still have around 100 days left, time will tell…

Oscar