"A vindima 2010" and foot treading reigns

Vive foot treading!

We are at it again, the annual process of foot treading and, once again, why?  For even and complete crushing of grape skin, flesh and juice, enabling maximum extraction of color and aromatic components, without breaking the grape pips that would release a green bitterness into the port in the making. We swear by it.  When we show our visitors the epoxy-lined open cement tanks called lagars in our winery and talk about foot treading, the initial reaction is usually a smile AND a raised brow, the prior for what seems to be a beautiful folkloric tradition, and the later for the slight disdain of potentially dirty feet in contact with the must (they are clean, I promise).  The best port is still made this way!  4 hours a day for approximately 4 days is the foot treading time until the fermentation is arrested with brandy and then the freshly made lagar of port is sent to individual tanks in the cellar by gravity flow.  For several months the port rests and sediment gathers at the bottom of the tank. Then the young port is ready to taste to evaluate the potential of each tank: Vintage, LBV, Ruby or Tawny or ?

Here are harvest palette colors -  pink, red, purple and all shades in between:

Healthy and plump clusters

Freshly pressed juice

Juice current

Fermenting must

Winemaker Jorge Alves tells us that 2010 is the best year since 2007, yet remains too early to know if of Vintage quality.  2010 was marked by 47% more rainfall and a 1-week  July heat wave 42C/108F, that unfortunately damaged some of the young vines.  Harvest started on 3 September and the last grapes came in on 26 September, many a long day of work!  Fingers crossed...

Foot treading is a high point of the harvest, the culmination of a year's work in the vineyards.  A synchronized effort, the head foot treader calls out  "esquerdo, direito, esquerdo, direito" (left, right...) to keep all in line. Pauses take place, foot treaders move about freely in the lagar, perhaps a sip of port, then back to work.  Laughs, games and good music accompany, and all are hopeful for an excellent quality of port. If you have never tried foot treading, come to Quinta do Tedo, and join us. Last but not least, the port harvest means purple feet and stained legs!

Vincent has been in the lagar

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As obras! Work in progress!

I have mentioned over the last year our restoration plans for the quinta that started this summer.  In a somewhat humorous way, I arrived at the quinta in July ready to take photos from across the Douro of our property for our new website’s home page, and low and behold!, impossible to do because the ROOF WAS OFF!

No more roof

We have owned the quinta for 18 years, so it us truly time to restore the main building!   We will have updated public bathrooms, a new office, a new quinta kitchen for our workers and for possible groups, a couple of rooms for accommodation, and a larger living space for us when we come, so we can invite guests without thinking twice (if you know what I mean).   All around we will have an even more charming Quinta do Tedo!  Estimated time of completion: end of 2010.

Here are some photos to show the progress:

Entrance to public bathrooms

Digging away

Please come into our kitchen, a cup of coffee or tea, or better yet, a glass of port?

So was spent our 20th wedding anniversary

Ready for action

Roof is almost back on, "as obras" continue....

Life this summer at Quinta do Tedo was a gritty, dusty, and grimy time, but the future is promising.  Look forward to your next (or first) visit to our quinta to show you the results!  Next blog I will talk about harvest 2010 and hopefully have some great lagar foot treading photos, a once-in-a-lifetime experience for anyone....

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The bird is singing!

The bird keeps singing

This month’s blog is more an announcement than anything else for 2 reasons:

as of today, July 21, 2010 the Quinta do Tedo estate officially practices “bioviticulture”, aka organic viticulture in the US.  In addition, coincidentally today as well, our new website www.quintadotedo.com is up and running, or I should say “our bird is flying”?!   I wish that you could all be here to open up a fantastic bottle of Quinta do Tedo Vintage Porto or Douro DOC table wine to celebrate with us!

Open door to bioviticulture

By becoming officially “bio”, a 4-year conversion process from sustainable viticulture (in practice at Quinta do Tedo since 1997), you as our customer have the certified guaranty that NO herbicides, NO insecticides and NO synthetic fertilizers are used in our vineyards.  We have been practicing this form of viticulture since 1997 and, following the demand from our importers and buyers, we have now completed the administrative conversion process as of today.  Being a single quinta, all of our grapes and olives are estate grown, so the Porto, Douro DOC and olive oil from Quinta do Tedo from now will be officially certified as “bio” starting this harvest 2010.  About 10 of the 300+ producers of the Douro have made the conversion, and we proudly are one!  How will this affect the porto, wine and olive oil from this harvest?  Follow next month’s blog…..

Re our “new” www.quintadotedo.com :  the quinta’s bird oenanthe leucurus continues to sing a song with more notes than ever!  Quinta do Tedo, now a “bio” estate of 24 hectares/52 acres, located in a protected ecological reserve, bordered to the north by the Douro and to the south by the Tedo, in the heart of an Unesco World Heritage site is all the better a place for making excellent porto, wine and olive oil and….for our bird’s future.  Click on the website and see the bird fly!

Restoration underway

Lastly, I just wanted to show you the quinta’s current restoration, the roof is off since July! The quinta will become an even more lovely experience for our visitors, with new bathrooms, several rooms for accommodation, a kitchen for catered events and other modern touches.

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How about the "pipa"?

Last month I ended my blog with a note that I would talk about the Portuguese barrel form called the “pipa” and why it has such a curious form for me, at least.

Our bird is singing

As I mentioned also in the May blog that Vincent has consulted for barrels for 30 years and we have been married 20 years this August, so you can imagine that we have seen many different sizes and shapes of barrels, from 114L for different dessert wines, 225/228L for the majority of wineries that we work with, to 300L, 350L, 500L and then onto the enormous upright tanks to 7000L.  The pipa is 550L and why this somewhat unusual size and shape, that of an elongated barrel?  Well, back when the Douro was a torrent flowing freely down to the Atlantic, this was the shape that fitted most snugly in the bottom of the “barco rabelo”, the traditional boat that was the main form of transportation in the 1800’s from the Douro Valley to Oporto, where were the famous Porto lodges  for aging the product in Vila Nova da Gaia.  Today the Douro has been tamed, with a series of dams, one feeding into the other, and the river has widened and flows slowly as compared to how it used to rage down in the rainy season before the dams were built in the last century.  So the pipa, is not used today for transportation reasons, as we now depend on trucks for most transportation and many Douro producers now age their products at the winery or closer by.  As you know our aging cellars are at our quinta, given that we are classified as a Single Quinta, all is done on site.

This is the 12^th month that I have written a blog and I have enjoyed sharing bits of information with you  and look forward to  many more blogs.

By the way, we have started restoration!

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“A barrel is like a tea bag”……

…..“The first time used it is very powerful and each year the flavor decreases”.

Bird on barrel head

You know of Vincent as Quinta do Tedo’s owner, but let us say that his “daytime job” is 31 years of international wine industry consultation re: crafting world-class wines with wood aging in barrels, casks and tanks.  Who else to turn to but my husband when I write about our philosophy of wood aging for our ports and wines!

Barrels, pipas, casks and tanks, used for centuries as storage and shipping containers, have evolved into an integral component today for aging different wines and ports, playing a vital role in: 1) wood flavor extraction 2) micro-oxidation (breathing) through the wood and 3) aromatic concentration.

Barrels for our wine

For our table wines we use 225/228/300L barrels, mainly French oak but also a smattering of European (Tokaj) and American oak, for their different wood flavors, as well as for the breathing and the concentration. This is why we age the Douro DOC red wine in 25% new barrels, 25% barrels from 2 years, 25% barrels from 3 years and 25% neutral barrels.  The Reserva is aged in close to 100% new oak and the Grande Reserva in 100% new oak.  The time of aging is about 2 years, when the wine is ready for bottling.  The barrels are used as a vehicle to age the wine, not to mask the wine with oak flavors, but to heighten the wine’s elegance, structure and complexity.

Tanks for Ruby and Vintage

Our philosophy for port is not to use wood for aroma and flavor (the wooden containers are neutral in flavor) but as a vehicle to help port breathe and concentrate during the aging in wood, depending on the type of port.  The Ruby and Vintage are aged in large wooden tanks (from 5000 to 7000L), to help the port breathe but primarily to “capture” and retain the port’s fruit.  Our Ruby is aged for 2 years, the Finest Reserve Ruby for 3 years and the Vintage for 2 years before bottling.

For the Tawny and LBV the opposite is intended; to use smaller barrels, casks and pipas (from 225L to 550L) for a longer period of time, thats help the port slowly breathe through the porous wood, that in turn concentrates the port through water molecule evaporation, that then leads to “topping off” (adding more port to the barrel) that concentrates the port.  That is why a Tawny is always sweeter than a Ruby and a LBV is always sweeter than a Vintage.

That tea bag does work wonders, and our wine and port speak for themselves!

Vincent and harvest prep

Visitors have asked us the traditional Portuguese barrel, the pipa, is 550 liters, and has such an unusual shape?  I will talk about that in my next blog at the end of June.

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Tank Installation

Before the big push

This was a feat: installing a 7000 Liter tank with 3 cm on either side of the cellar’s entrance to spare!  The actual endeavor was close to a miracle, and we thank our lucky stars that we got the tank into the aging cellar, intact and without dismantling!  As you may know, in addition to the port and wine business, Vincent is also involved in the barrel business.   New and reconditioned oak tanks and barrels, mainly French, are an integral part of our port and wine’s quality.  Some of the larger tanks arrive disassembled, to be rebuilt inside the aging cellars by Vincent, Jorge and the quinta team.  We took our chances with this one, as you can see in the photo.

Unloading

Which of our ports age in the 7000 Liter tanks?  Ruby for a couple of years with different lots blended afterwards and Vintage for 18 months to 2 years.  Why such a big aging vessel?  We age with slow micro-oxidation, that softens the tannins yet saves the fruit and color, due to minimal contact between the Port and the wood.  This particular tank is from the prestigious French Troncais forest, and is an old reconditioned Cognac tank.  Our Quinta do Tedo policy is to have all ports foot treaded and aged in wood, for shorter or longer periods.  The Ruby is ready to enjoy after bottling, ad the Vintage generally is to lay down for further bottle aging.

Here it comes

In contrast, our Tawny and LBV spend longer periods of time in smaller barrels varying in size from 225L – 550L.   The Tawny ages up to 8 years and the LBV up to 6 years.  The focus is to accelerate micro-oxidation and concentration of aroma and sugar: smaller volume = more contact with wood, so that the fruit and tannins soften faster.  After bottling they are pronto for enjoying, but can also continue to age, especially the LBV.

At home in cellar

My next blog will talk about the wood that we use for aging at the quinta, a fascinating subject, especially because Vincent is so full of information after 30+ years of consulting internationally in the barrel business!

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