Quinta do Vale Meão

Translated to mean “of the valley in the meander,” Quinta do Vale Meão is situated in some of the best terrain in the entire Douro River Valley. Quintas are wine houses in Portuguese, Hacienda in Spanish. The Quinta here is on a peninsula where the Douro River makes a 90 degree turn from west to north, then 180 degree turn south, and then a 90 degree turn back to the west towards Porto.What makes the vineyards here so exceptional are, basically, everything. The soil is rocky, forcing the grapes to send their roots down deep, resulting in profound complexity. The climate is dry and sunny but with good ground water. This is essential for disease prevention and good growth…mature grapes at harvest. This combination allows for the best possible product.I chose to visit Quinta do Vale Meão for three reasons. First, I have never been and have always loved their wine. Second, they produce extremely high quality wine and are located not far from my small vineyards. Third, they export most of it to the United States, so we can actually find it back home! Like almost all high quality Douro red wine, it will need age, a minimum of seven years in my opinion. Ten, up to Fifty is even better! It is worth the wait!They produce two relatively easy to find levels; a very good “Tinto” (red table wine) around the $25 a bottle range, and a high end Estate-Grand Reserve level. Expect to pay $100 plus a bottle for those. And of course they make Port Wine, with some of the best Vintage Port in the industry. Good luck finding those, as I was only able to obtain one bottle on this visit for myself.If you find yourself in the high Douro, near the Spanish border, definitely reserve a tour and tasting. They also have a helicopter pad for true ease of movement. Next, on to Spain and some grapes grown inside an internationally recognized nature preserve, very much off the beaten, touristic, path.

So you think you have had Port. Part 3

I love Vintage and Crusted Port. I also really enjoy a quality red blend of “table” wine from the Douro. It can be super easy to get lost in the world of Port Wines. And how do you know if you have a quality red Douro blend? I spoke for just under two hours as the presenter at this February’s tasting of our local chapter of the American Wine Society, tasting and explaining how to navigate Portugal’s premiere wine growing region, the Douro.

Can you explain the difference between the four bottles in the photo? If you were presented these wines at dinner which would you choose? With a little knowledge on Port wine you can pick a quality Douro red. The key to begin to unlock quality wines from the Douro, the world’s first Wine Demarcated Region by the way, is Vintage Port. In the Douro, in the world of Port, not every year is a Vintage year. Vintage years must be declared by the vineyard and then approved by the Port Wine Institute located in Porto Portugal. To be a vintage year the growing conditions must be excellent all the way through harvest, ensuring an exceptional wine. If you know the Vintage years, and find a non-Port wine from a particular Vintage year, you are almost (nothing is every “certain”) guaranteed to have a quality Douro “table” (non-fortified) wine. Then you will need some time. I recommend almost any Douro red to have at least six, preferably eight years of age to make for a fantastic drinking experience.

So, Vintage year, 6 years of age, and you have a quality Douro Red. Simple enough. We sampled three Douro reds before moving to Port during our tasting. The next part in our series, Tawny Port.

A “family” run vineyard, Quinta do Panascal

Just an eight or so minute drive down the Douro River to where the small Tavora River flows into the Douro, up on the side of the river valley is Quinta do Panascal. This Quinta is still “family” run but is owned by Fonseca, the Flagship brand of the Taylor’s. It is a very different feel than the bigger ones right in Pinhao and is definitely in the running for most picturesque vineyards in the Douro, and it produces some of the best wine! One of the best parts about Quinta do Panascal is you can walk up and see the stone vats where they crush the grapes, by human foot! We, humans, have not invented a technology or technique to crush grapes without crushing the seed better than the human foot. If you visit Pompeii you will see the same looking stone vats, called “lagares” in Portuguese. The grapes are crushed in early fall by teams of stompers, usually to music. If you are coming to the Douro during the wine harvest, contact the Quinta ahead of time to get a chance to see wine being made the same that it was over 2,000 years ago!

Quinta da Roeda, one of the oldest in the Douro

Just two minutes up the road from The Vintage House Hotel (almost literally next door to the Symingtons) is Quinta da Roeda, one of the oldest Quintas in all of the Douro. Quinta da Roeda is the flagship vineyard for Croft, which is owned by Taylor’s. You can do just about the same thing here as you can at Quinta do Bomfim except the view is even more magnificent. You also get a different taste of how some of the best wine in the Douro is made, and of course the opportunity to buy some. Again, definitely worth a trip!

A dry year for our grapes

Portugal, along with most of Southern Europe, is in an 80 year drought. There has not been any measurable rain in just over four months. If that wasn’t bad enough, there are multiple large fires in the area, including across the border in Spain. Smoke exposure can very quickly taint the grapes. Most grape varieties, especially the ones native here, send their roots down very deep, up to 40 feet or more. For it to be a good wine year, a Vintage quality year, you need good rain in the winter and spring up until around the end of April/early May. A shower here and there through June doesn’t hurt as long as it stays hot. But any rain in July into August can cause the grapes to swell and split, destroying the harvest. The problem this year; almost no rain this past winter and spring through now. While a lot of the old vines are hanging in there the rest of the vines are suffering. For premium wine, you cannot water the vines once the grapes have developed. The vines need to pull all of their moisture, and thus minerality from deep in the soil. This is what gives wines their “terroir,” and makes grapes from the Douro so famous. We will have to wait and see how this year’s harvest turns out.