For The Love Of Port

Hi Glenn In fact your question is very pertinent. In my opinion the LBV or the Vintage made with white grapes will probably give very good wines with an ageing potential and they may be able to evolve towards sophistication. My problem is the confusion that this will create on the consumer's mind. T...

Hi everyone! Thank you all for your questions. I must say I was very pleased to know that Port Wine raises so much interest and curiosity among people, which is excellent and motivates the ones who are breaking those Stone Mountains - we all work for a good cause and happily our wines are appreciate...

Hi Al I totally understand your preference for the 40-80 year old Vintage Port. Your question is quite difficult to answer. As I've told you before in Port Tasting (like most of other wines) we need lot of experience for tasting. As the Port is a long ageing wine we still have to have more practice ...

Hi kris

Thank you. At this place, I can't have access to the information you are asking me - the shops where you can by Ramos Pinto wines in Seattle - but I'll let you know this later.

All the best
João

Hi Roy

In my opinion the technology is in the vineyards. We still have a long process to get to know well our viticulture. Fortunately (!) we are one of the wine regions that has more local varieties. What a richness!

All the best
João

Hi Marc I consider different stages for the Tawnies: - Young Tawnies (young person) - it's a tawny not matured because the dominant flavors are still red, fruity. The color is still very red. - 10 years-old (teenager) - it's a tawny transition from the red fresh fruit flavors to the dry fruit flavor...

Hi Andy As I said Douro can give such a variety of different wines that you have to use them for different occasions. I think the Rosé Port is something light and fresh and not a product to age. However the white has been made in the past and the experience was very good. We do a White Reserva, whic...

Hi Eric As I previously said we have to know very well the Region and the different vineyards. The year is very important as well. The experience teaches you to know where to have the best varieties and the best places to make Port or Douro wines. Even for the Douro wines it will depend of the type ...

Hi Al

I never made this experiment but I believe that if we have the grapes receiving directly from the soil without rootstock the wine may be better.

All the best
João

Hi Todd No, I always keep one third of the previous blend. So, I put the sample on the tasting table and I have to do a new blend to taste the same as the reference that is there, even if I have to use different wines. What goes in my mind is the character of the wine and I try to do always better t...

Hi Melanie

Thank you for your kind words. I say that Port can be "sick" if there is an infection, a contamination of bacteria's or a micro-organisms' attack.
Let us hope we don't have any serious "attack"!

All the best
João

Hi Roy I don't think so. In Douro as you know there are plenty of great places with different expositions and altitudes. In order to select Port and Douro wines you have to know very well those vineyards and to make your selection. That is also the reason why Ramos Pinto has its own vineyards - to b...

Hi Blair Our Ramos Pinto Vintage is made from a blend of different Quintas namely Quinta de Ervamoira, Quinta do Bom Retiro and Quinta de Urtiga, which gives complexity to the Vintage as well as more acidity, vigor and thick tannins that allow the wine to live longer. Regarding Quinta de Ervamoira V...

Hi Marc

Of course, there are plenty of other varieties that we can use to give more complexity to the wine. Currently, for example, I am using Tinta da Barca that gives a different spicy flavour for the wine. We are also using Sousão that gives vigour and colour to the wines.

All the best
João

Hi Steve 1 - I've been trying to answer this question. We decided to finish with Colheitas because ageing a wine in wood for many years implies refilling the cask as many times as needed. So we thought why not making directly a blend which is more the Port Wine culture? On the other hand we have the...

Hi Andy I understand your frustration about Port communication. I also feel the same. But, as I am an optimist man and believe the quality of Port Wine, I think that this quality product will come up again. If we look at the history of different wine categories, we see that there are high and low pe...

Hi, Conrad! 1) Vertical plantation When I started working for Ramos Pinto, I was also giving consulting at Quinta das Murças, that belongs to a friend of mine. At Bom Retiro, my uncle José Rosas was very worried about all the Douro viticulture stagnation and specially the necessity of mechanising th...

Hi, Frederick! Some years ago, the Port Wine and specially the Vintage, was made in “lagares” like nowadays, but with a small difference. The whole grapes were dropped into the “lagares” and they were crushed by feet because there weren’t roller crushers. That system obliged us to a strong extractio...

Hi, Sean!
As you can see in my answer above, we’re working on that. Nice picture and good suggestions. Thank you very much.
All my best,
João

Hi, Moses !
Thank you for your suggestions. I think the best will be to use the two ways.
I mean, we have to innovate with new things but we have also to make a link with past culture. We are preparing new things and you will be able to see this work next year.
All my best,
João