2012 Harvest

[Andy Velebil]

It's here and officially in full swing

Post what you hear about it here folks. We can use this one for both Ports and Douro wines.

[Frederick Blais]

Haven't been able to follow much what was written here before. Here what I have experienced from being at Niepoort, Vargellas, Passadouro and Val de Meao.

Early budding was experienced this year, though we could have thought of a early harvest, the summer was extremely coold for a douro year, good thing because there was not much rain either. At Val de Meao they said so far this year they had received 120mm of rain while the average for a full year is 400. Late August and early September were probably the hottest days of the summer. I've only seen some showers and thunderstorm on the 8th of September but the land was so dry that it did not go deep. As the harvest is getting more active if the weather stays the same, sugar level should be able to reach their usual levels.

For the white grapes, a lots of raisin and rot has been seen. It was also disastrous for some producers that were badly hit by hail.
For the red grapes, the overall quality of the grapes is much better, at least easier to sort :)

I've tasted some fermenting juice at Niepoort and the wines are having good structure and acidity so far.

Pictures and video should come in the following days.

[Andy Velebil]

Thanks Fred, please do post the pics and video when you have time.

Tell the Neipoort gang I said hi!

[Al B.]

This is probably a good thread to note where to find information on the harvest on the web. So far, the best harvest blog that I've found is the Graham's Blog where Henry Shotton is providing daily harvest updates. Oscar Quevedo has also posted a blog entry this week from the harvest.

Other than these two blogs, things seem to be very quiet for news from the harvest!

[Tom Archer]

From emails received:

Grapes are approaching full ripeness, flavours and colours are reasonable, but acidity is poor.

Weather so far this month has been good, but the forecast for the coming week is problematic.

- Optimism and excitement about this vintage seems to be in very short supply..

[Paul Symington]

Rain came today after several days during which it felt like high Douro summer. It has been hot in the vineyards. Thank goodness for cooling equipment because there were some days last week when the grapes where simply too warm coming into our wineries. In the old days my father and uncles would have been making very sweet Ports with very little colour because they would have had to run off the lagares when the fermentation temperatures got too high. But now we have cooling equipment. Cooling is not used every year, which is why some do not bother to invest in it, but in a week like the one that we have just had, it makes the difference between making great Ports or having some very disappointing wines. So last week was really quite good and the wines are very pleasing.
The rain came at about 5am this morning and it has been raining on and off all day. Because we have had virtually no rain all year (174 mm total to end August at Bomfim compared to the 21 year average of 400 mm), it actually feels very, very, good to see, hear and smell the rain falling across our vineyards. Many local villages have dry springs and are relying on water deliveries, all around us we have seen the results of the prolonged drought. But of course we want the rain to stop tonight. The forecast is no rain tomorrow and then showers for the rest of the week. If this holds true, then we will be fine as the grapes that will be picked this week are looking very fine despite the drought. As I write this the temperature outside is down to 16⁰ Centigrade, so we will not be cooling the musts over the next few days...

[Andy Velebil]

Paul,

Many thanks for taking the time out of your busy harvest schedule to give us this update!

[Andy Velebil]

The Vintage Port Site (from the Symington's) has a post about the harvest at Quinta do Vesuvio. Here's a tad bit, click on the link for the full scoop at Vesuvio thus far.
http://www.thevintageportsite.com/view.php?id=14537

....As is customary, we began our harvest at Vesuvio a little earlier than many other Symington quintas, harvesting selected parcels of Tinta Barroca the 12th and 13th of September with just our own vineyard team working. Charles Symington, Head Winemaker, said the Barroca had excellent colour and baumé, and he was very happy with the quality of the wine.

On the other hand, the yield on our Barroca was only about 50% of usual....

...Tuesday and Wednesday were very hot and sunny and this seemed set to continue for a few more days. Given the combination of conditions, outlook, how the vines seem to be coping and how the grapes tasted, Charles and Mário ultimately decided to make some changes in the picking order. Some key parcels of Touriga Nacional and Sousão were ready to pick and in the next few days Mário will make a couple lagares and half lagares of a blend of these two varieties. We will then go back to finish the Tinta Roriz and harvest some Tinta Amarela before returning to pick the rest of the Touriga Nacional....

[Roy Hersh]

Here is an update from Paul Symington, by way of Cynthia Jenson:

http://malvedos.wordpress.com/2012/10/1 ... o-harvest/