Our vineyards flooded

Although 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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Rose Port: many consumers loved it but some still say this is not Port

It is time to ask for your opinion. Six months after we have first released our Rose Port and 3 months after we had run out of it, Rose Port is controversial. Many people think Rose Port was a great idea. But there are still some more conservative enthusiasts who defend Rose Port is not even similar to the traditional Port Wine and should not be called Port. What do you think?

Hey Santa Claus, there are 10 things you can bring me over

It is Christmas time and as far as I know Santa Claus is already on his way to Linhares de Ansiães, the small village in the Douro valley, where my grandparents from my mom’s side were grown and where I will have the Christmas dinner. I don’t like to ask for anything, specially because I think we have more than enough stuff to live with and to make us happy. BUT, if I could choose what Santa Claus will bring me tonight, here is my list:

• a big pot with one vine of Tinta Francisca and one vine of Pinot Noir, as I want to find if they are really the same varietal
• a ticket to see the Uefa Champions League final between F.C. Porto and F.C.Barcelona
• wizard hands to finish all the repair works at my parents’ house
• that in 2010 the peaches from Trovisca come without worms
• some rain during the months of April, May and June to help the new white vines we are planting growing strong and healthy
• a pair of cycling boots to ride more efficiently up and down the valley
• that 50% of all the friends that have told me they would come over in 2010 really show up
• cold nights during the next year so I have a good excuse to drink more Port
• no new roads or highways constructions in the Douro so its autenthecity can be maintained
• and new snickers as it is not been easy to find some nice ones that fit in my feet!!!

And what about you? What are you asking to Santa Claus?

Oscar

2007 Vintage Port tastings - from Denmark to Germany after Portugal and Brazil

This is definitively a special Port Wine. The 2007 Vintage Port declaration has received a lot of attention not only from Port enthusiasts, but also from media and retailers. In the last weeks we made a special tasting of our Vintage 2007 in Denmark for the Port-aficionado clients of our distributor in the country. During the tasting I could explain a little bit of what makes 2007 probably the best Vintage of this decade, so far. The Port and Douro Wines Institute - IVDP has also been busy promoting and organized a couple of tasting in Portugal (together with Essência do Vinho) and in Brazil.

Next February 12th many producers will fly to Germany to show up in other tasting co organized by the IVDP and by the World of Port, which is run by Axel Probst, other Port lover.

That said, If you live in Germany and specially near by Leverkusen, do not miss this chance to taste many Vintages from the so special harvest of 2007. I will be there for a toast and for a lot of fun!

Oscar

Snowing in the Douro right before Christmas

We are white again!!! After two days of low temperatures and very cold winds, it snowed in the valley. All happened tonight, probably between 1am and 6am. I don’t know exactly, as I decided to go earlier to bed so I could have time to read the addicting Port and the Douro by Richard Mayson. This morning, when I opened the blind I had this surprise: the Douro was covered by a thing layer of snow! It does not snow that often here, maybe 3 or 4 time each decade, but curiously the last time we saw snow in the Douro valley was in the last week of December 2008, so not even one year ago. Global warming or Douro freezing?!?

If you are considering to visit us these days, please don’t forget gloves, scarf and boots. We give the wine!

Oscar

Quevedo is participating and live broadcasting Adegga Wine Market

Today, Tuesday December 8th, if you are in Lisbon and you want to enjoy a glass of wine, I would strongly suggest you to go to Adegga Wine Market. The venue is the Teatro Aberto located in the Praça de Espanha and you can find there 20 wine producers, from all around Portugal and many wine lovers. My sister, Claudia, is there showing you our wines, as I am isolated slowly recovering from A flu.

You can see all the event live here:

Online video chat by Ustream

Pairing Quevedo Rose Port and Nespresso Leggero

I made a video showing my experience and I also asked Rodolfo Tristão, Coffee Sommelier of Nespresso presenting live this idea. Take a look and leave your comments!

Oscar

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Tasting red Ports from 2009 harvest

This week we made the first serious tasting of our red Ports from 2009. The colours overall have surprised me by the intensity shown. The acidity in general is not very good, though we have a couple of exceptions. But I liked the balance of the wines.

I think 2009 Ports will age quite quickly due to some lack of acidity. I am really looking forward to see how they resist to their first Winter. There were two of these 8 Ports that I liked very much. And guess what? Do you remember the doubts, questions and stress we had from the Port fermenting in the Vat #1? This was my second best Port from 2009!!! At that time, we could not really control the fermentation of this Port. It was made by itself!

Next week is time for White and Rose Port!

Oscar

How well is ageing our single varietal Port Wine?

Honestly I don’t really know how are the Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Sousão, Tinto Cão and Tinta Roriz Ports aging. They are already in 250 liters barrels and after Christmas we will make the first tasting. Any volunteers to help us? Meanwhile, I asked  my friends to share with us what they expect from the Port they helped to make. Here are some comments of the different teams:

Elisabete Pereira from Sousão team:

The whole experience was great. In other years, we were only able to see the beginning of the harvest, but this year we saw the complete process from the cleaning of the boxes for the harvest to the manual crushing of the grapes. Now we really know what it takes to create a wonderful Quevedo Port from excellent grapes, collected carefully by four women and made only from Sousão grapes. Now it only needs many years of rest to get a unique taste. The Sousão team really recommends the experience to anyone willing to spend a nice, relaxing, and different weekend!!

Marta Palmeira from Touriga Franca team:

632 kg of grapes will result in the best Port wine made from Touriga Franca in recent years. The fermentation time was the best of the five single-varietal. The brandy also helped. But the real flavour will come from the work of six busy hands not used to this work, and the slow and tired pace of the legs and feet of Dani, António, pequena Sara and myself. Next year we will taste it. And we’ll enjoy it for sure! Cheers

Diana, Ervilha, Manjas e Pedro from Tinta Roriz team:

Tinta Roriz, seven lines and a half
The grapes of Tinta Roriz were harvested by three and a half people, as one of us brought a baby in the womb. Maybe with this in his mind, Oscar gave us a varietal with huge bunches, plenty of taste, which we filled up in not even one hour; after that we helped Sousão and Touriga Franca teams, which were debating with lack of grapes and some laziness.

When we arrived at the winery, after lunch, we cleared the boxes and moved the grapes to the machine that takes the stem out, after that we put the must in a container which we filled up up to the knees level. In the meantime we went for the traditional dive in the Douro river and we came back after dinner to tread the grapes few hours before we had harvested. Within one year we will make a toast!

Is there more “Port Wine” in the world besides the one produced in the Douro?

During my trip to Hong Kong there was something that made me sad. Over the last four of five years I have been realizing how difficult is to build a brand. As said, only the first 100 years are difficult. And this is even more true for Port Wine. It took many years for Port to be known, recognized and appreciated all around the world. But it achieved such a difficult task. Is one of the wines with more brand awareness and associated to quality, distiction and a certain nobility. So the Portuguese must be very proud to own and make one of the most valuables wines in the world.

However, and there is always a “but” in everything, the success achieved by our ancestrors in the creation of a distinctive wine, attracted others to replicate the original. Almost every new world wine countries have it own version of Port: Argentina, South Africa, Australia or USA. I would not find any problem in this if they would create a new desgnition for their fortified wines. Call it Mendoza 20%, Stellenbosch Noble, Barossa Fortified or Napa Sweet, but not Port. Port is only made in sqm in the Douro wine region of Portugal.

The US have already started legislating against the use of European protected wine-related designations, forbidding the use of the word “Port” in theirs fortified wines. But a lot of political and legal work is still required in other countries.

I hope to find only one type of Port next time I go to Hong Kong, the one from Douro.

Oscar

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