How is/was the winter so far in the Douro?

[Christian Gollnick]

Somehow I have heard little to nothing about the winter 2015/2016 so far. Has anybody some news about the rain-situation?

[Eric Ifune]

Check this out.
http://thewinedetective.co.uk/blog/port ... 2015-douro

[Christian Gollnick]

Thanks, Eric. This is a really great overview of the 2015 harvest. The funny thing is that - when I was in the Douro in September 2015 - the wine makers were by far not so optimistic... seems like this year the rain has saved the harvestand gave the grapes a good push at the end of the harvest...
But what I asked about is the weather since the harvest... December, January... Did we have a lot of rain in the Douro?

[Frederick Blais]

I think January was quite wet in some part of the Douro, I've seen a lot of photos flowing on Facebook of high level river and fast current.

[Thomas V]

Any news from our favourite valley?

[Frederick Blais]

I'm going there in 2 weeks, I'll bring back fresh news! From what I could see rencently, it looks colder than usual.

[Thomas V]

I'm going there in 2 weeks, I'll bring back fresh news! From what I could see rencently, it looks colder than usual.

Sounds great Frederick.

Whom are you visiting with?

[Frederick Blais]

I wrote this last Friday while I was in Douro :

Right now it is pouring cats and dog in he douro!!!!

The winter was warmer and wetter than usual. Some said coming out of February with 2weeks aheahd of schedule!! Then March was colder with again lots of rain! April is no different! Some vines did not grow in weeks because of the poor weather and now we are back on average for its vigor compared to other years.

In the Pinhao valley, we have already recorded over 300mm of rain since the start of the year. It is a lot as the average is around 650mm for one year. Forecast for the next few days is rain!! Up in the mountains, snow fell this week, really unusual for April. Hail also fell in some vineyards doing little dammage. I got hit by it as I was walking around the path between Provesende and Crasto.

In this time of year we can clearly see the effect from the differences of the temperature in the valley! up in sabrosa and Provesende the buds are breaking at best while in Torto Valley they are 10-15+ cm long.

Many fears it will be a challenging viticulture year. The lack of frost except for higher vineyards combined with the current weather is giving energy and vector for the problems in the vineyards to set fast once the sun shows up!

As usual, in Spring we can see who's using herbicide or not. Most of the vineyards are brown with a little bit of green thanks to the heavy rain that makes spraying very difficult and inneffective at the moment. Many also starts to challenge the 2 rows patamares strategy as you cant use mechanised way to cut grass in between the higher slopes and thus leading to increased erosion in this time of year. We should see more single row one in the future with smaller tallus making it easier to cut weeds and then prevent humidity to set in the vineyards.

Weeds management got its benefits too for erosion control. This Friday I was walking in 2 vineyads. One with no grass and one full of it! Obviously the one with no grass was flooded and waterfalls emerged from the slopes pouring dozen of liters per seconds in the Douro river. While on the other hand, the vineyard with grass was probably giving away a couple of liters of water per minute in the Douro. Obviously the humidity control in the vineyard will also be handled differently afterward.

The only positiveness we can find out of the weather is the millions of esteva flowering in the Douro. Some slopes look like the milky way with billions of stars. Once the rain stops and the sun dries the wather off the resine perfumed leaves, it infused the aromas in the surrundings, fantastic!

This Tuesday I got news it is still raining in the Douro.

[Thomas V]

Thanks for the report Frederick. Albeit a bit gloom. Let us hope for a change in weather and a hot summer.

Did you happen to take any pictures of the valley with the esteva? Would love to seem them.

[Frederick Blais]

Yes I did but with the rain and cloudyness I was not able to get a nice shot of slopes full of them. I'll try to post a link to the photos this week.

[Christian Gollnick]

Thank you, Frederick, for this great report. I nearly felt like being in the Douro while reading it! I have never been in the spring in the Douro Valley - must be really interesting now. I have seen photos and videos of the high water level in the Douro in Regua... It really seems to be a very wet April in the North of Portugal. Well, at least then we have some water in the ground to help the plants through the hot summer...! Thanks for the update - which was the most interesting report about the weather so far this year in the Douro that I have seen yet...

[Frederick Blais]

Forgot to add, while chatting with the taxi driver in Porto, it is the coldest and wettest weather of the last 35 years in Porto. It could be quite similar for the Douro as some are saying it reminded them already some super wet 1993.

[Frederick Blais]

Here is a link to some photos :
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... b99cb736e5

[Andy Velebil]

Yes thanks for the update


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