Vintage Port Soil Aging Question

[Marco D.]

BTW, which is the other Sousao-heavy port?

[Andy Velebil]

BTW, which is the other Sousao-heavy port?

Vesuvio's Capela which was 30% Sousão.

[Andy Velebil]

I remember reading that Sousao has a dark pulp and adds a deep, dark color to the wine, although it tends to lose the color fairly rapidly... Although some are not convinced about this rapid loss.

The question I've yet to get an answer about is why did Sousoa, that from many accounts was so prominent before Phyloxera, fall so far out of favor after Phyloxera and is now rarely mentioned. If anyone knows or has any theories on why I'd love to hear them.

[Daniel R.]

The question I've yet to get an answer about is why did Sousoa, that from many accounts was so prominent before Phyloxera, fall so far out of favor after Phyloxera and is now rarely mentioned. If anyone knows or has any theories on why I'd love to hear them.

Accurate accounts of the first half of the last century are hard to come by and producers have only started planting vineyards by grape variety quite recently, why do you say it fell out of favour?

The first (and there have not been much work done since...) study focusing on grape varieties dates from 1981, prepared by João Nicolau de Almeida and José Rosas, and identified 5 recommended grape varieties that do not include Sousão (Touriga Nacional, Aragonês, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, and Tinto Cão).

Off-topic: Sousão is widely planted in the Vinho Verde region, where it is known as Vinhão, and is the base of most red Vinho Verde. In the Douro Quinta do Vallado and Dona Berta make interesting Sousão monovarietals (not Port).

[Eric Menchen]

Can I link to Jancis Robinson? If so, here's a good read on Sousão:
http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/ ... 908_3.html

[Glenn E.]

BTW, which is the other Sousao-heavy port?

Vesuvio's Capela which was 30% Sousão.

FWIW, Nacional can't really be called Sousão "heavy" because Sousão is only the 7th grape in the blend. I can't find the exact percentages, but if I had to guess I'd put Sousão at no more than maybe 5%. It's only "heavy" relative to other Ports, most of which contain no Sousão at all. (According to Noval the Nacional blend contains Touriga Nacional, Francesa/Franca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz, Barroca, Amarela and Sousão. Since that's not in alphabetical order I assume it's in order of content.)

Capela, on the other hand... that's a lot of Sousão! I'd love to get the chance to taste the Capela again now that I know more about the Sousão grape so that I could try to find tell-tale traces like its higher acidity.

[Andy Velebil]

The question I've yet to get an answer about is why did Sousoa, that from many accounts was so prominent before Phyloxera, fall so far out of favor after Phyloxera and is now rarely mentioned. If anyone knows or has any theories on why I'd love to hear them.

Accurate accounts of the first half of the last century are hard to come by and producers have only started planting vineyards by grape variety quite recently, why do you say it fell out of favour?

The first (and there have not been much work done since...) study focusing on grape varieties dates from 1981, prepared by João Nicolau de Almeida and José Rosas, and identified 5 recommended grape varieties that do not include Sousão (Touriga Nacional, Aragonês, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, and Tinto Cão).

Off-topic: Sousão is widely planted in the Vinho Verde region, where it is known as Vinhão, and is the base of most red Vinho Verde. In the Douro Quinta do Vallado and Dona Berta make interesting Sousão monovarietals (not Port).

I have a number of books from the early to mid 1800's and they reference Sousao quite a lot as being a predominate grape for VP's. Then by the early 1900's there was barely any mention of it anymore.

[Andy Velebil]

Can I link to Jancis Robinson? If so, here's a good read on Sousão:
http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/ ... 908_3.html

A great read on it, thanks for posting it. While Noval says it rarely makes it into the regular VP, with only 1/2 a hectare I'm sure a fair amount ends up in the NN.

This part by Paul Symington may also help explain why Nacional seems to live so long, be so dark, and have great acidity. And why they chose it for Capela.

.It has very high natural acidity, a very useful trait in the Douro where the wines often have relatively low acidity due to the soil and the excellent hot ripening conditions. In fact our regular maturation studies done last week (to fix our picking dates) showed Souzão giving double the acidity of the mainstream varieties.

[Marco D.]

Lots of interesting Sousão info in this thread. maybe it should be put in it's own thread? Maybe a new thread should be started each month to discuss a different port varietal in depth, adding peoples thoughts and anecdotes?