Our vineyards flooded

Posted by
January 4, 2010

Flooded vinesAlthough feasible, I swear we are not spending our time on fish farming nor growing rice in our vineyards. The responsible for this scenery is the heavy rain that has been falling during the last weeks in the Douro. Even though it is absolutely necessary as the vines need to accumulate reserves for the upcoming hot Summer, there is a small problem: we haven’t started yet to pick up our olives and therefore our production of organic olive oil is threatened. Hopefully, sun will shine during the next days.

Oscar

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  • http://ricardobernardo.net ricardo

    Que tudo corra pelo melhor.
    A chuva era necessária mas, na quantidade que chegou,…

    Votos de um grande 2010!!!

  • http://www.wine-blog.org Jo Diaz

    Fingers crossed for picking up your olives.

    Would you be willing to talk to me about your olive picking practices? I’d love to blog about that, and I don’t have any information… just the images that I took in early November of olives on the ground in big nets in the Alentejo. Do they stay there on the ground? I have lots of questions.

    Please Email me ~ jo @ diaz-communications . com

    Thanks.

  • http://www.quevedoportwine.com oscar

    Hi Jo,

    There is some information about olives picking up in this post I made last year http://quevedoportwine.com/general/organic-olive-oil-from-quevedo-using-mechanical-vibrating-harvester/. There is also a video that shows how we make it.

    Should some other doubts arise, please drop me a line.

  • http://www.cortesdecima.pt Carrie Jorgensen

    Oscar, it’s been raining ‘sardines’ here in the Alentejo too, but luckily our vines, mostly on elevated hills, still have their feet dry! As for our olives, we harvest them green, in October or November.
    Jo,no the olives don’t stay on the ground. It is vital that they are processed the same day they are harvested.
    We have also uploaded a video of this year’s olive harvest onto YouTube. You can check it out here! http://cortesdecima.com/general/harvesting-olives-in-alentejo/

  • Estaban

    OH NO! I look in horror at your photo of the poor vines!
    I hope your are able to dry out soon! I am sending sun from America to your lovely farm.

  • http://www.wine-blog.org Jo Diaz

    Oscar, great to have your resources for my writing. I’ll include you in my blog as being my resource. Thanks!

  • http://www.wine-blog.org Jo Diaz

    Carrie,

    Same for you as a resource. I’ll mention you both, and if I have questions, I’ll reach out to each of you. Having two sources will be great. I’m also going to be talking about Portugal’s olives and olive making processes, as that’s going to be the entire focus… to bring Portugal’s olives/olive oils into the spotlight.

  • http://www.cortesdecima.pt Carrie Jorgensen

    Jo, that’s great news! We need work like yours to help promote Portuguese olive oil, so few people know how great it is!

  • http://www.wine-blog.org Jo Diaz

    Carrie, I wish I could go back and find the quote, but I learned a long time ago that Portuguese olive oils are quite superior. Also, if an olive oil from Italy says, “Packed in Italy,” it probably meant that it was brought to Italy from Portugal. (Tricky) So, I always read where it comes from… I’ll be working that in, too ;^)

  • http://www.cortesdecima.pt Carrie Jorgensen

    I have heard it said too! Perhaps it was the olive oil guru Judy Ridgway?

  • http://quevedoportwine.com/ Oscar Quevedo

    Spain is also a big producer, the biggest actually, and they export a lot to Italy.

    Thank you for mentioning is Jo!

  • http://www.wine-blog.org Jo Diaz

    Thanks for all the leads, which I’ll follow up.

    Question for either of you: What makes the Alentejo such an extraordinary region for olives (terroir wise), living there and working there?

    When I’ve heard that Portugal is the best in the world, there must be some specific reasons of regionality that are unique… likened to your cork forests. (Maybe we can even begin to come up with something unique for marketing that’s yet to be discussed, but has been waiting for millenniums to be uncovered ;^)

  • http://www.cortesdecima.pt Carrie Jorgensen

    Good question Jo! I have also read that Alentejo has very particular climatic conditions, that create an ideal environment for the olive tree growth.One of these is that the soils are generally rich in calcium and potassium. The other is our warm ‘Mediterranean’ climate moderated by the Atlantic Ocean and free from heavy frosts in the winter. In testimony to this are the many ancient olive trees dating back 2.000 years to Roman times in our backyard.

  • Jorge Belo Rosa

    Não faz mal. Quando o nível baixar fica depositada muita matéria orgânica, que é uma grande estrumada

  • Jorge Belo Rosa

    Já há muitas gerações que as vinhas do Ribatejo foram inundadas, mas agora, já com menos frequência, e elas nunca se queixaram.
    As cheias conforme disse anteriormente, além de deixarem uma quantidade enorme de matéria orgânica, proveniente dos nateiros, depositada.
    Uma grande quantidade de predadores, são dizimados, portanto fica o terreno limpo.