We are in December, very close to Christmas day, but we still have a red wine fermenting in our winery. Honestly, this is not a good thing. The alcoholic fermentation of this wine stopped before all sugars were transformed into alcohol, leading to a very tricky situation for the wine. So much that, if this sugar in the must is eaten by lactic acid bacterias, which would transform the sugar not into alcohol, as desired, but into acetic acidity, we would have vinegar instead of wine.

So what we are doing now is to try to restart a alcoholic fermentation, inoculating the wine with new selected yeast so they can eat the remaining sugar and transform it into alcohol. If this operation goes in the right direction I can assure you that we will have a delicious wine, as the must tasted beautifully.

As you may know, yeast need between 18º to 21º C to correctly perform fermentation. Outside temperature rounds 0ºC. We need to warm up the wine before, so yeasts won’t die once we put them in the wine.

It is going to be a different Christmas this year, with wine still fermenting at the winery. Cross your fingers please!

Oscar

With the harvest gone, it is time now to talk about one of the most important machines that we use to make wine. The destemmer crusher plays a very important role in the whole process of making wine. This is how it works:

• First, the grapes get into a cylinder, which is rotating at high speed.
• Then, the paddles beat the grape, making it jump out of the stem and dropping into the crusher.
• The crusher will gently break the berry, but not the seed, which goes then to the fermentation container. Many gently crushed berries together compose what we know as must, which will later become wine.
• For the stem, the cycle is different as it will then continue to the other side of the cylinder, where it will be removed to a container outside of the winery. After some months it is ready to be used in soils with high pH as a fertilizer.

But better than words is this video that I made during the harvest. It’s all in Portuguese, but unfortunately I made an English version, which, for some reason, disappeared…I hope that it helps you to train your Portuguese! Fixed!

Any question or comment?

Oscar

Another European wine bloggers conference gone. This time we met in Brescia, Franciacorta, Italy. As expected, there was a big focus on the sparkling wines from Franciacorta, which are nowadays known not only in Europe but a little bit everywhere. As I am not a fan of sparkling wines, I was satisfied to see other Italian wine regions represented, as well as Austrian and Chilean wines. This year there were well over 200 attendees, reaching the reasonable limit for the conference with this format, in which we try to meet most of the people present at the event.

Contrarily to what I use to do, this time I did not stay for any post-conference trip as worked called me back to Portugal. This year trips where to Chianti Classico and Friuli.

From Portugal there were not many people but I was happy to see that we are no longer alone as Port Wine producers. Sogrape was present in the last two editions, but this year two other Port producers joined us, João Roseira from Quinta do Infantado and Cynthia Jenson representing Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos.

The highlight of the conference was on Sunday when a small group of around 25 people visited Monte Rossa winery. Emanuele Rabotti, the MD of the winery, degorged a 1990 Cabochon. I had the chance to make a video of it. A total of 4 bottles were opened, which, due to the high pressure inside the bottle (around 5 atmosphears) was in the water, making it a cleaner opening. And the wine showed very well, still fresh and vibrant!

Oscar

During the harvest, all those that make a living out of wine are always more excited. Time also moves faster and few hours are left to spend with the family. But harvest is special, so much, that we want to make sure that those who visit the winery or that follow us on-line can have a nice experience and feel at least part of what we feel.

The Portuguese television TVI has been giving to their viewers an inside of what goes on in the Portuguese wine regions durinng harvest. The name of the program is Estrada Nacional (National Road), in which Paulo Bastos and Miguel Bretiano (nice people BTW) are the reporters. They came over when visited the Douro valley and so we were very happy to share with them how we use social media to promote our wines. Take a look at the video.

Oscar

Port Wine is the most well-known of all Portuguese wines and one of the most respected wines in the world. But there are not that many people knowing how is it made. Port Wine is a fortified wine, it means we add a 77% alcohol to stop fermentation, making it a little bit sweet. But what really occurs is what I want to show you with this video. Take a look and if you have any questions you know where to find me.

Click here to see an older video of real fortification of White Port.

Oscar

We are done! 34 days and 10 hours later, we harvested all of our vines. This is the photo of the last basket of grapes to be taken to the winery. The last vineyard to be collected was Pojares, a property in the family for long time. It is located in the top of our town, S. Joao da Pesqueira at around 650 meters above the sea level.

2010 harvest was a challenging year in the Douro valley for the winemakers. Due to a very cold Winter, maturity was very late, around 20 days behind the normal. The very hot and dry August blocked vines, and grape maturity almost stopped. At the beginning of the harvest sugar concentration was low, only increasing considerably in the last week, few days after the 2-d raining period, between October 8th and 9th. Weird and unusual, I must say…

Almost 300.000 liters after, and with ALL tanks, containers and barrels full (if you have an extra tank at your place, please contact us as we may need it to store some wine!!) it is now time to bottle Port and Oscar’s 2009 for Christmas season.

For all of you who visited us during the last weeks, thank you very much for coming, and next year please don’t forget your grape scissors! We will always need and enjoy your help, anywhere!

Oscar

This photo is a good example of what we have been doing during the last days. After two weeks harvesting, we decided to take a brake so the grapes on the vines can finish the phenolic maturation. All our vineyards located in the bottom of the valley were already harvested. During the next week, should the weather help, we will start harvesting Quinta da Trovisca, located 550 meters above the sea level. After finishing the harvest in Trovisca, we shall move to Senhora do Rosário, located around our winery.

So, the question now is, what is on the photo? This is the moment of the fortification. We are adding a 77% alcohol by volume “brandy” to inhibit yeasts of transforming more sugar into alcohol. This way fermentation stops and we get a sightly sweet wine, Port Wine, also known in the Douro as Vinho Generoso.

Let me know if you have any question!

Oscar

Few months ago I made a post about the sediment of 2009 still wines. Huge amounts of sediment were accumulating in the bottom of the vats. At that time two members of our community, Andy and Derek, were wondering how the sediment of a 2009 Port Wine vat would look like. This photo brings the answer. Don’t ask me how is possible that it has waves and why is the bottom split in four quadrants. Maybe be there is a physicist out there that can help us understanding this!

Oscar

On the 11th day of harvest, here I leave some comments about the current situation:

• the weather is good, dry and clear, with temperatures between 20º to 30º – still okay to swim in the Douro river
• day after day musts are showing deeper and deeper colors – best indicator is the skin of my hand, which is getting black
• during the first days, grape juice tasted like strawberries, now is tasting like blackberries – one day it will taste like good Port Wine
• the winery is getting full of grapes and there is a lot of work to do – my sister told me she doesn’t want to hear about orders, at least, until after Christmas
• so far trucks, vans and cars are running good – only one tractor had a flat tire
• we haven’t received visits from other producers in the last days – this means many people are already harvesting
• yesterday my 2 years-old niece wanted to try same grapes from the vines around the winery, but she didn’t find very sweet – here is the scientific explanation why not to harvest these grapes before October

Oscar

This is the fermentation tank that received the first grapes of 2010 harvest. Must is already fermenting and yeasts are so happy for the juice they have inside that are sending a lot of foam outside. Strange way of communicating…! With all this excitement, we can only get a great wine from this tank!

Oscar