I would like to give you an update about what is going in the Douro valley. The weather has been pretty good, clear and with plenty of sunshine, meaning that the grapes are very healthy and clean. We are now finishing harvest in the vineyards around the winery. Today it rained a bit, for the first time in more than three weeks, but nothing really serious. We estimate that around 35.000 kg are left in our vines, ready for picking.

In terms of quantity, we faced a strong drop of around 25% in the total volume of Port Wine being produced. The good news is that the grapes are in great conditions, rising the expectation of a great harvest. 2011, a vintage to put on the list. But we talk again in 10 years.

A note about the photo. One of these Saturdays, we were opening a fermentation tank to make Port. On the bottom of the tank there is a kind of stopper, 1metre wide, through which all skins are removed. Guess what, I opened too much the stopper and had a full-body wine shower. Do not see this as a free peeling, but actually as a very expensive mistake, in which we lost some hundreds liters of wine.

Back soon,

Oscar

I guess we all agree that wine blogs and wine social media overall are becoming more and more popular amongst wine consumers. Traditional media, like newspaper or specialized wine magazines are living a concerning period as more and more people prefer to look for information online, rather then buying a magazine. Similar behavior is being taken by companies, which instead of buying adds on magazines go online to reach their customers.

So it was with some surprise that I saw an article on the biggest Norwegian wine magazine about good wine bloggers to follow. Instead of trying to hide and disregarding wine blogs, what they do is to suggest nice ones to follow. Well done Magasinet VIN! Your customers will appreciate your suggestions and will keep loyal to your magazine!

Oscar

The influence of the British culture on the Port Wine industry started some centuries ago when the first British merchants came to Portugal and set up their exporting business in Vila Nova de Gaia. Actually, the arrival of the British coincides with the origin of Port Wine itself. Not surprising, this fortified wine made in the Douro valley adopted the British nomenclature to classify the different types of Port Wine. Words like “vintage”, “ruby” or “20 year old tawny” sound better for a British than “vindima”, “vermelho” ou “aloirado de 20 anos de idade”. The only word that I know that is generally adopted to classify a type of Port Wine which is not in English is “Colheita”. Colheita is a Portuguese word that means “Harvest” is a Port Wine that aged for at least 7 years in barrel and is bottled not blended, with Port from a single harvest. So the year of the harvest will be on the label.

Few days ago I realized that “Colheita”, although being generally accepted to identify this type of Port Wine, is not mandatory to be written on the label. Only the year of the harvest need to be on the label, complemented, if wished, by English terminology. That is what Graham’s, other Port Wine producer, did when launched a 1961 Colheita Port. On the label you can see “1961 single harvest tawny Port”.

This seems like a clever option to identify a single harvest Port not using the hard and difficult to pronounce Portuguese word “Colheita”. I guess this becomes much easier for the big majority of the customers of this Port, which are non-Portuguese speakers. And as Portuguese are familiar with English terms, everyone should be happy with this solution.

Now you may ask, “Oscar, now that you know that you can use on the label of your Colheita Port an English term to define Colheita, are you planing to change your labels?” Well, there are some traditions that we must keep. I think we must continue using the same terms my parents were using before.

BTW, the Graham’s Colheita 1961 was recently launched by the Symington family, after selecting 3 casks from a total of 14 that the family has in its lodge. But please take a look on Graham’s blog to get more info about this Colheita 1961.

Oscar

Dear follower of my blog,

The Oscar’s wine project is going pretty well. So well, that we were challenged to come up not only with a red but also with a white Oscar’s wine.
Spring has already begun and Summer is around the corner, so guess what? We are going to release it right now! Today, the first 300 bottles were sent to Malta! Yes, that small island in the Mediterranean sea which you may want to consider for your next holidays, not only because you can find Oscar’s there but mainly because of its wonderful beaches and parties!

What is in white Oscar’s? A lot of care and attention with our grapes and a touch of love to seal our passion to make wines.

That’s all for now! I’ll come back soon with more news!

Oscar

I have already talked here about one of the most interesting discoveries in the Port history of the last years. I’m talking about Villar d’Allen, a family with a very respectable and fascinating past as Port Wine producers and merchants. Fortunately, for the Port Wine lovers and collectors, Allen family is back in business.

Few months ago the Allens challenged us at Quevedo to make a special blend of a 20 Year Old Port for them. As you can imagine, this was very hard but also very pleasant. We tasted different barrels at our winery and others of at my family’s cellar. We also tried very old bottles of Port Wine still remaining in the Allen’s cellar (how great some of those bottles showed!!) to identify the style and characteristics of their Ports. Also reciprocate visits were made.

Finally, we presented a blend that was so well received by José Alberto and Tomás Allen, both

father and son, that we bottled late in 2010. We only made 500 bottles of this 20 Year Old edition, which the Allens presented to friends in their estate, located in Freixo, Porto.

After these stressing months working on Villar d’Allen 20 Year Old, I feel a little bit more relaxed and tremendously happy and proud to make this come true to this lovely family. Check Villar d’Alllen’s blog and if you come to Porto ask for a visit, and enjoy an unknown family museum

This is a recurrent theme on the specialized Port Wine forums. Whether you go to For the Love of Port or to The Port Forum, you will find this questions unanswered. Actually, I think there is no answer for this, not from the legal side, neither from the producer’s point of view. Why?

On the legal side, IVDP says that a Colheita is a “Port Wine from single harvest”, so 100% of the Port, the total amount from a single vintage. But on the other side, IVDP does not contemplate any evaporation rate for the barrels. However, we all know that anything you age in the wood will evaporate slower or faster. Port Wine in a 550 liters pipa (kind of barrel from the Douro) will evaporate at an annual rate of around 3% (even higher in dryer and hotter cellars), but this evaporation rate is not reduced from the inventory together with the IVDP. If you declare 550 liters in 1911, and leave it in the pipa from 100 years, in 2011 this pipa will have 27 liters, or 5% of what you had in the year 0. But the figure on your inventory is 550 liters. There is no answer on the legal field.

Now lets analyze the winemaking process. Lets imagine we have 10 pipas. We use one for topping off the other 9. At an evaporation rate of 3%, this pipa will last for 4 year. At the end of the 4th year we choose a second pipa to top off the remaining 8. This second pipa will top off the others 8 pipas for 6 years. And so on… (if you are lost, just open the Port bottle and search for something more interesting). Going to the point: is the Port from the topping pipa aging in perfect conditions? I guess no, because as soon as it starts topping other pipas it will not be completely full and this will speed up to fast the oxidation/ aging process. The more it tops off other pipas, the bigger is the amount of oxygen in the topping off pipa.

That being said, is logistically hard to top off with the same wine for a long period. On the producer’s point of view, it depends on what you want from the Port: topping off with Port from the same age keeping the same flavor profile or refresh it with younger Port to increase the flavors spectrum.

What do we do at Quevedo? It depends on which Port we are talking about.

So, can a Colheita be topped off with a younger Port and still be called a Colheita? Yes, it can, and sometimes we do it.

Oscar

2010 is about to finish, but before we enter 2011, we want to present you the second edition of our Douro wine Oscar’s.

First released in 2009, Oscar’s is a social, friendly and easy-going Douro wine. Made with grapes from Quinta da Trovisca, our 2009 blend shows fresher notes and is a little bit more tanic than the 2008 edition. But that is my opinion, what really maters is what YOU think about it. Until the end of the year Oscar’s 2009 will be exclusively available on Adegga Selection, only for the Portuguese market. But sooner rather than latter you will find it in your country. That’s what I’m working for.

For those who didn’t taste the 2008 yet, it is available online in the US, provided by The Wine Hub.

For the fans of whites, we are planning on  to launching a crispy white Oscar’s from 2010 harvest. In one month it might be in the bottle! Come over and try it! We’d love your opinion.

Oscar

Yesteday, while I was in an event, which I’ll cover latter here in our blog, I was asked which of the Douro banks makes more wine, the north/right or the south/left. I don’t know the answer but I will do some research to find out. What is your felling? In one week I’ll post the correct answer.

Oscar

Note from Dec 20th 2010: the correct answer is right/north bank. Although the voting was divided, the north bank produces around 60% of the total wine made in the region. Figures in liters in this order – Port Wine (before fortification); still wine; total wine

Right/north bank:

Alijó    7,775,050; 8,204,283; 15,979,333

Peso da Régua    6,116,550; 4,078,944; 10,194,994

Santa Marta de Penaguião    4,760,170; 5,160,674; 9,920,844

Sabrosa    4,429,390; 3,259,759; 7,689,149

Vila Real    2,638,320; 2,706,929; 5,345,249

Murça    1,948,130; 2,392,897; 4,341,027

Carrazeda de Ansiães    2,439,010; 1,528,301; 3,967,311

Mesão Frio    1,599,510; 1,081,665; 2,681,175

Vila Flôr    1,520,716; 1,143,575; 2,664,291

Freixo de Espada à Cinta    1,499,100; 884,093; 2,383,193

Moncorvo    1,459,239; 668,655; 2,127,894

Alfândega da Fé    69,190; 23,330; 92,520

Mirandela    65,490; 10,826; 76,316

Total    36,319,865; 31,143,931; 67,463,796

Left/ south bank:

S. João da Pesqueira    9,180,126; 6,862,628; 16,042,754

Foz-Côa    5,644,328; 5,691,096; 11,335,424

Lamego    3,786,720; 2,740,209; 6,526,929

Tabuaço    2,866,330; 1,541,721; 4,408,051

Armamar    1,776,180; 1,607,096; 3,383,276

Mêda    1,151,780; 1,234,450; 2,386,230

Resende    90,080; 245,485; 335,565

Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo    155,590; 29,818; 185,408

Total 24,651,134; 19,952,503; 44,603,637

For the first time in Quevedo’s history, we bottled double-magnums (3L) and imperials (6L) of a Vintage Port. The chosen Port Wine for this exclusive limited edition (20 units each) was our 2008 Quinta Vale d’Agodinho Vintage Port as this is also the first Single Quinta Vintage Port we release. All the process has been hand-made: bottled and corked by my university friends when they came for the harvest in the second week-end of October; labeled two days ago just in time for the first export of 4 units; and, of course, handcrafted waxing.

Apart from the size of the bottles, there is something cool that I would like to show you. It’s about the back-label, as it’s very unusual. Last September 27th, when Julian Wiseman visited our winery, together with other Port fellows, he suggested me to put a kind of contract in the back-label. Take a look and let me know what you think! What does this contract make you feel? Does it change anything in your wish of having one of these bottles?

Thank you to Julian for your idea and for writing the text. Also take a look at what Julian wrote on his website about the “contract” and please read the “Enforceability” text!

Oscar

During the last month we have been busy not only making newest wine from harvest this but also preparing the bottling of a Port Wine from 2008 harvest. We had in our winery a small blend of Ports from our main vineyard, Quinta Vale d’Agodinho, which we decided to declare as Single Quinta Vintage Port. Ports from 2008 are in my opinion very good but not deserving a declaration under our main brand Quevedo. However, we wanted to show and share with our friends the character and complexity of the grapes from Quinta Vale d’Agodinho. This way we decided to bottles a reduced number of bottles in 75cl, 150cl, 300cl and 600cl formats. This is the first time we are declaring a Single Quinta Vintage Port and if you want to enjoy it I’m glad to share a couple of glasses with you during your next visit to our winery!

Come over, you won’t regret!

Oscar