quinta-feira, 24 de janeiro de 2019

The 2016 classic Vintage Port

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The 2016 Vintage Port comprehensive list, the producer's and their notes.

     The 4th classic vintage Port of this century, 5 years after the extraordinary 2011 vintage ports, and after all the doubts and indecisions among winemakers and producers regarding a possible 2015 vintage declaration, which nevertheless was a year with very good conditions to produce vintage Port, we now have the 2016 vintage declaration.
    It was the result of a very difficult, demanding and challenging wine year for winegrowers, in which their experience and knowledge of the vineyards was absolutely fundamental to the critical decision of the right moment to harvest.

    To understand these wines (and in fact all wines) it is necessary to know all the peculiarities of the wine year that originated them. see more information: the douro 2016 harvest report

    Despite the number of the 2016 vintages declared, that we have recorded so far (100), however, it seems clear that, also taking into account the 2015 vintage Port declaration and although we are always within the scope of a classic generalized and comprehensive declaration, considering the number of producers who declared the 2016 vintage with their mains brands and the indisputable extraordinary quality of these wines, there were also important exceptions, houses that took the option of not declaring 2016 (such as Ramos Pinto) thus assuming the 2015 declaration preference, and others that reserved their main brands for the 2015 declaration (such as Niepoort and Alves de Sousa), facts that did not occur in the 2011 classic vintage declaration.

    In 2016, the quantity of vintage Port produced was lower, a consequence of the wine year characteristics, but also the commercial strategy of the main reputed companies to progressively value this special Port wine category, with the consequent price increase. This trend began to be noticed with the 2011 vintage Ports and after almost a quarter of a century (since the end of the 1980's) in which demand had slowed.

    We also have news, companies that declared their first vintage Port or new vintage Port brands, the first editions: Dona Otília - Ferreira Porto Vintage Vinhas Velhas - Quinta da Água Alta - Quinta do Pôpa - Quinta dos Lagares - Talentvs Quinta Seara D'Ordens.

    The list details:


Our thanks to the companies who collaborated in this publication with all the information provided.

 (please send further relevant information to: ptopwine@gmail.com)


A lista completa dos Porto Vintage 2016, os produtores e as suas notas


    O 4.º vintage clássico deste século, 5 anos depois do extraordinário vintage de 2011 e de assistirmos a todas as dúvidas e indecisões entre produtores e enólogos relativamente à declaração vintage do ano de 2015, que apesar de tudo, foi um ano com excelentes condições para a produção de Porto vintage, temos a declaração de 2016.

    Foi o resultado de um ano vitivinícola muito dificíl, exigente e desafiante para os produtores, em que foi indispensável toda a sua experiência e conhecimento da vinha na decisão do momento certo da vindima.    
    Para compreender estes vinhos (como todos os vinhos) é preciso conhecer as peculiaridades do ano que os originou. mais informação em:douro, o relatório da vindima 2016 .

     Apesar do número de vintages declarados que registamos até agora (100), no entanto, parece claro que, considerando também as declarações vintage em 2015, apesar de estarmos sempre perante uma declaração clássica de âmbito muito alargado e generalizado pelo grande número de produtores que declararam vintage em 2016 com as suas principais marcas e pela extraordinária qualidade dos vintages apresentados, houve importantes excepções, casas que assumiram a opção clara de não declarar 2016 e a preferência por 2015 (como a Ramos Pinto) e outras que reservaram as principais marcas para a declaração de 2015 (Niepoort e Alves de Sousa), o que não aconteceu na última declaração clássica de 2011.

     Em 2016 a quantidade de Porto vintage produzido foi menor, consequência das circunstâncias especificas do ano vitícola, mas também a estratégia comercial de muitas casas produtoras para a valorização progressiva desta categoria especial de vinho do Porto e o consequente aumento de preços. Esta tendência de valorização começou a ser marcada pelos vintages de 2011, depois de quase um quarto de século (desde finais dos anos 80 do século passado), em que a procura tinha abrandado.

     Existem também novidades nesta declaração, casas produtoras que declararam vintage pela primeira vez, assim como casos de primeiras edições: Dona Otília - Ferreira Porto Vintage Vinhas Velhas - Quinta da Água Alta - Quinta da Oiveirinha - Quinta do Pôpa - Quinta dos Lagares e Talentvs Quinta Seara D'Ordens.

  O nosso agradecimento às empresas que colaboraram nesta publicação com as informações e os esclarecimentos prestados.

(para envio de informação complementar, que agradecemos: ptopwine@gmail.com)

 ©Hugo Sousa Machado


    
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domingo, 20 de janeiro de 2019

Dirk Niepoort dixit...

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    The opinion of Port and Douro wine producer Dirk Niepoort on the Port wine sector, a current and lucid view:

    "One of the problems of the Port wine sector is that the Port houses want to "democratize" this wine as a way to develop their business. Democratizing is important in everything, but here democratization becomes trivialization. I would like to see Port as a "snob" and old-fashioned product, even elitist, but not banalized, which is what is becoming when ways are invented to get people to drink at any moment cheap Port. The future of Port wine is inseparable from the Douro wine and the Douro region future. In my view, we should reduce the quantity of Port wine produced, leave the excessive dependence we have on the cheap Port wines sold in supermarkets and focus on the higher Port wine categories (as is the case of the Colheita Ports), increase the overall quality and, consequently, increase prices. Port wine should be regarded as something very special, rare and desirable, that is not for everyone and not for everyday.".

    

     A opinião de Dirk Niepoort sobre o sector do vinho do Porto, uma perspectiva actual e lúcida:

     "Um dos problemas do sector do vinho do Porto são as casas quererem "democratizar" este vinho como forma de desenvolver o negócio. Democratizar é importante em tudo, mas aqui a democratização transforma-se em banalização. Eu gostava mais de ver o vinho do Porto como um produto "snob" e antiquado, elitista se quisermos, mas não banalizado, do que aquilo que se está a tornar quando se inventam formas para levar as pessoas a beber um Porto barato a qualquer momento. O futuro do vinho do Porto é indissociável do Douro vinho e Douro região. A meu ver deveríamos reduzir a quantidade de vinho do Porto, deixar a excessiva dependência que temos do vinho do Porto barato para supermercados, apostar mais nas categorias superiores (como é o caso dos Colheita), aumentar a qualidade geral e, consequentemente, o preço dos vinhos. O Porto deveria ser encarado como algo de especial, raro, desejável, que não é para todos nem para todos os dias.".

     
(in "Vinhos Grandes Escolhas" magazine, n.º 17, September issue).
(in revista "Vinho Grandes Escolhas", n.º 17, edição de Setembro 2018).

©Hugo Sousa Machado
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sexta-feira, 30 de novembro de 2018

Douro, the 2018 harvest report


    Another uncharacteristic year in the Douro, difficult and challenging
    2018 was another atypical year in the Douro. We could even define irregular and uncharacteristic as the rule in recent years. 2018 had many difficulties and as main characteristics that define it: frequent and estended rainfall periods, hail storms, the great mildew pressure and the summer heat wave. But it seems that the grape quality was good and even, in some cases, as reported by some Douro producers, extraordinary.

     So, let us follow the wine year in the Douro.

    After a long cycle of extreme and severe drought, shortly after the 2017 harvest, which was very anticipated, as we have published here in Douro, the 2017 harvest report, the hot and rainless weather continued throughout the month of October. In November, finally, there was some rain that brought some relief to the soil and vineyards lack of water and to other agricultural crops in general. It was, however, in small quantity and insufficient. The average precipitation remained below average for the Douro region ultil March 2018. The specific case of the vines, these are plants with a deep root system and a relatively small size that usually can withstand water stress quite well.

    The Winter

    The winter was cold and dry, with little and insufficient precipitation.

    The Spring

    With the beginning of spring, there was finally intense and abundant rain that allowed the soil water reserves replenishment and was essential to overcome the previous drought periods. In the months of March, April and May 2018, precipitation levels were approximately twice the average for this time of year in the region.

    In addition to being extremely rainy, it was also in spring that the first serious difficulties of the year arose, on 28th May, in a cold period with heavy and intense rain, hail and thunderstorm. The soil was unable to absorb such a large amount of water in such a short period, which caused landslides and slopes to fall (the roads between Alijó, Sabrosa and Pinhão were closed). This storm caused significant damages and losses in some vineyards, especially in the Cima Corgo sub-region, in Alijó and Sabrosa, in Pinhão and surrounding area, Provesende and Vale de Mendiz.
    Some producers recorded partial and total crop losses. Among those affected, Quinta do Junco (The Fladgate Partnership), Quinta do Noval (which will have been substantially affected), Quinta do Bonfim (Dow's), Quinta da Cavadinha (Warre's) and Quinta de la Rosa. 

    It should be noted that these hail storms phenomena have been occurring with increasing frequency.

    The unstable weather, the heavy rain at the end of May, and the below-normal temperatures for this season, which coincided with the vine bud break(1) and the late flowering, also had as a consequence some severe crop loses and a 2 to 3 week delay in the vine vegetative cycle.
    There was still rain in the first weeks of June, and weather instability, constant and late rainfall and high humidity, provided the ideal conditions for the exceptionally agressive mildew(2) this year, which struck the vineyards and in many cases caused great procuction losses. The mildew also meant an increase in production costs for producers, both in treatments to fight the disease and to heal the hailstorm hit marks in the grapevines.

At Quinta do Passadouro, Vale de Mendiz, Pinhão river valley
    The Summer

    The months of June and July were also characterized by some climatic instability and a lot of rain still in June. Summer arrived, initially with mild temperaturres, lower than usual, which kept the grapevine vegetative cycle delay.

    But with August arrival the weather changes, with periods of strong heat and temperatures higher than usual. At the beginning of August there were temperatures above 40ºC in Cima Corgo and Douro Superior sub-regions (in some cases above 45ºC), and  a heat wave that caused sunburn scald in many vineyards and grapes, the most sensitive and less resistant to intense heat vine varieties were those to suffer the most. The 4th of August was the hottest day of the XXI century in the region and, according to the IPMA(3) data, August was the second hottest month of the last 88 years.

    Nevertheless, the July, August and September hot and dry weather allowed the grape maturation to regularize and the hot September month contributed to an acceleration of the grape ripening.

    The Harvest

    It was a late harvest, still determined by the vineyard vegetative cycle delay, which in turn determine that the harvest would begin later than usual. There was a generalized harvest delay throughout the Douro demarcated region of about 2 weeks in the different stages of the vine and grape development, sprouting, flowering and veraison. As mentioned, the higher temperatures that occurred in the grapes maturation phase allowed some recovery of the phenological cycle.

    There was good and quite hot weather throughout the 2018 harvest, with high temperatures above 30ºC (according to the IPMA data, September was the hottest since there are records) with hot days, but cooler nights that also influenced the final quality of grapes and wines.

     The harvest ended, in most cases, in the second and third week of October, which coincided with the first autumn rains.

     The production facts

     All the difficulties of the wine year mentioned above - the unstable climatic conditions, hail storms, mildew pressure and the heat wave - have led to a production drop, generally about 30% less (or between 20% to 50%), however, when considering the grape quality, procucers consider that quality was very good this year.

     Some cases

     According to the Quinta do Vallado report, considering Quinta do Vallado as a whole and the Upper Douro vineyards, the production drop reached around 15%, highlighting that there were vineyards that produced well and with optimal quality, along with the sousão grape variety that suffered greatly from the heat, other grape varieties like touriga francesa had an optimal quality. Despite everything expectatios are high, not only for Port wines but also for the house D.O.C. Douro wines.

     The Symington Family Estates group (which holds the Port wine brands Cockburn's, Graham's, Dow's, Quinta do Vesúvio and Warre's), reports that the 2018 production was very low, many of the vines producing less 40% than usual average and few vineyards with a yield of minus 25%. In spite of this, but also as a consequence of the low production, some excellent Port wines as well as D.O.C. Douro wines. As in Quinta do Vallado, Symington points out the good performance and good quality of the touriga francesa grapes with good color and good aromas which will be the main characteristics of this grape variety this year.

     Alexandre Antas Botelho, responsible for the Nobel & Murat Port wines, states that 2018 "was overall downright good (in quality). In our experience, the grapes arrived in good condition to the winery, we only had to be careful about the fruit temperature and the maturation state, in order to preserve the natural acidity essential for the balance of the wines. In the lagares, the critical issue was keeping temperatures low and under control which moreover has been a trend occuring in the last three years. The musts resulting from the vinifications had good color and body, also preserving very interesting aromas.".

At Quinta de Nápoles, Armamar, river Tedo valley

 Notes:

 (1) Bud break: it marks the beginning of the vine vegetative cycle, with the emergence of the shoots.

 (2) Mildew: "This scourge first appeared in 1891, after the American rootstocks resistant to the phylloxera hab been introduced. It attacks as much the vines and flowers as the fruits. (...) Humidity and heat are essential conditions for its appearance. In case of a mildew attack, the roses immediatly accuse the event before the vine. This is why roses are planted in the vineyards." in Illustrated Port Wine Dictionary, by Manuel Pintão and Carlos Cabral
    It is one of the major vine diseases (the most destructive in Europe) and it occurs a bit throughout the country. It is a fungus that attacks the green parts of the plant and the fruits at all stages of its development. It can cause serious damage, which can vary according to the susceptibility of the grape variety and the vine stage development. It usually occurs in rainy springs and with high humidity levels in summer.

 (3) IPMA: The Sea and Atmosphere Portuguese Institute.

 ©Hugo Sousa Machado

 May also interest:  

                           Douro 2018 harvest field work        Douro, the 2017 harvest report

    

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