Vineyards

How the Port Wine benefício system works

One of the crucial questions to perfectly understand the Port Wine industry is the beneficio system. Due to its huge complexity, the beneficio is almost all the time a thorn in the side of those who are not from the Douro but want to know how things are made here. Lets try to put this [...]

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Raining during the harvest, fortunately 50% of the wine is already made

The scenario is pretty disappointing. It is raining heavily in the Douro valley for over four hours and there is no signal of ending. We harvested today in Quinta da Trovisca, before starting raining. But now the soil has plenty of water and bunches and leaves are also very wet. There are no conditions for [...]

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Resuming harvest after rain delays in the Douro valley

We are starting today the second phase of our marathon, also know as harvest. After picking up the grapes from our vineyards by the Douro river, Quinta Vale d’Agodinho, Alegria and Mós, which we finished on September 24th, we decided to make a short break before harvesting the vineyards around our town, S, João da [...]

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Harvest 2010: first grapes arrive to he winery

And finally the harvest has began. This is the first case of grapes of 2010! We started yesterday, September 11th, picking up the grapes of our vineyards in Mós and in Quinta Vale d’Agodinho. The weather is clear and warm again, with temperatures in these vineyards on the earlies 30sº C. In general, the sugar [...]

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Harvest 2010: rain may delay grapes harvest in the Douro

Last night it finally rained in S. João da Pesqueira. This morning started cloudy, and now is raining again. Temperatures are much lower now, around 14ºC – 15ºC. Hopefully it rains during today, tomorrow clears out and temperatures go back to the early 20s. Oscar

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2010 Harvest: this is the week for us to start harvesting

Were you in the Douro and I’m sure you could feel that harvest is getting closer. You can already breath harvest air, people are getting more and more excited about picking up grapes. The new vintage is in the mouth of everybody across the valley. Now, everybody is looking for the best moment to start [...]

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Hailstone 2 weeks before the harvest starts it is not what we in the Douro were asking for

Finally it rained in the Douro, but only in a small part of it. In our vineyards almost nothing, but in Alijó, which is in the north of S. João da Pesqueira/ Pinhão, it rained heavily. Actually, too much. Check this video from this morning and you will see the damage caused by hailstone to [...]

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2010 Harvest: the big show must start in a couple of weeks

Quick update from Denmark about how things are going in the vineyards. Yesterday in our vineyard in Quinta das Olgas, Mós, center of the Douro Superior, maturity control of the grapes showed already 12,5% potential alcohol. It seems grapes maturation is few days behind the average, but evolving quicker than expected. It is reasonable to [...]

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Will Forest Fires in the Douro Valley affect the quality of 2010 wines?

Since the beginning of the season over 68,000 hectares of forest have burnt in Portugal, around 10,000 of which were in the Douro. A part from the severe consequences of these disasters, the inevitable question now is, will the smoke of these fires affect the wines of the upcoming harvest, which should start in a [...]

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2010 harvest: first maturity control results

Following a kind of tradition that we started in 2007, the first maturity control of the grapes are carried out on August 10th. The chosen place is always Quinta Vale d’Agodinho, which we divide in 4 parts: top entrance; house; orange trees and northern water containers. At 6pm yesterday, there I was, with two more [...]

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