Yesterday’s New Douro tasting was one of the best yet. While the emphasis was on the 2009 vintage, producer’s also brought the odd older wine, which was appreciated. 2009 is a ripe, warm year, but despite the heat and lack of rain that characterized this vintage, the wines have a lovely purity and openness to [...]
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Here’s a short film from this year’s harvest at Quinta de Roriz in Portugal’s Douro region. This is where the famous table wine Chryseia is made. It’s a beautiful property. We also get to see the Mistral sorting machine at work: this uses a jet of air to blow away raisined berries which would contribute [...] In this short film, Paul Symington describes the way his company have pioneered the use of mechanical foottreaders (also known as robotic lagares) for Port production. It’s not straighforward: Port needs a rapid but relatively gentle extraction, and the human foot is especially good at this.
A film from my recent Douro visit. It’s Graham’s spectacular Quinta dos Malvedos, shot the day before harvest began.
For more on Malvedos, take a look at the superb Graham’s blog. While I was staying in the Douro last week, I had a chance to see some historical pictures from the first decade of the last century. I’ve posted them online here. I find the Douro a fascinating region for many reasons – not least, the very real connection with history and tradition. Bringing the wines down [...] So here’s a film of foot treading at Quinta do Vesuvio, one of the Symington’s properties in the Douro. It’s amazing to think that many of the top Port wines are still made in this ancient fashion. Port grapes are loaded into the lagar after being picked during the day, and are then trodden for [...] Quinta dos Canais Just back from the Douro, on a trip visiting the Symington family’s properties. It’s always good to be in the Douro, and especially so at harvest time. It hasn’t been the easiest of growing seasons, but good weather over the last few weeks coupled with good weather over the next few (which [...] Some pictures from yesterday. Great time of year to be in the Douro with vintage just starting. Sousao OK, a bit of geeky viticultural stuff. I’d always been told that Portuguese variety Sousao was a teinturier: a grape with coloured flesh. Normally red grapes have all their pigment in the skins and the flesh is transparent. With teinturier varieties, of which there are very few, the flesh is also coloured. They make incredibly [...] I love the Douro, and I’m delighted to be going out there again in a couple of weeks. So much is happening, in the relatively new region for table wines. Here’s a new wine from Quinta de Tourais in the Baixo Corgo – the first bit you come to arriving from Porto, which is also [...] |
 This is the blog of wine journalist Jamie Goode, online since 2001. Feel free to nose around; your comments are welcomed.
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