For The Love Of Port

Just a quick update to give you information about what has been happening in the Douro in terms of weather in the last couple of months.

I spend the last 2 months in half in Porto with frequent trip to the Douro. If early February did show some nice warm and sunny days, from late Frebruary until now, it has been raining almost everyday. On top of that, it is cold in Douro. Last week end, the temperature dropped to 2 degrees in some village. You can still see snow on the top of the Mourao mountains.

At this moment, the Douro is super green! well at least on the parcells not abusing from chermicals herb killers. Which is encouraging to see more and more green in the Douro. There are still a lot of vineyards showing the desolation of the chemicals, but erosion issue is making its way in a positive way for the nature.

The vineyards are late by 2-3 weeks compare to the average. Depending on who you speak to. Budding on lower altitude vineyards only started in the last 7-10 days.

That water was much needed as the drought from last year left many vineyards in bad shape. Now is it too much water? Will this translate in fungus problems? More rain is on the forecast.

One last thing. I've started sampling some 2017 dry wines. I'm affraid some monsters could well be in the making. It is a year of concentration of tannins, flavours and color!

Thanks for the update!

For good yields, the growers always long for ample rainfall, but for the very best enduring quality, the weather needs to beat up the vines a bit..

Spring time in Montréal
Don't ya miss it Fred

Salut

Tom , when you say "beating up the vines
Are you referring to heat stress

A period of severe heat stress with moderate hydric stress in July/August followed by a freshening pre harvest shower in September is a common feature of great vintages.

Stress that is severe enough to cause widespread raisining is not so good however.

And too much heat causes the vines to shut down. That happening during harvest is generally not a good thing.

That happening during harvest is generally not a good thing.

Hot harvests are not welcome, but if there isn't a good blast of heat earlier in the summer, the wines tend to be lacklustre..

It is not black or white, but they are clearly 2 types of growing seasons that leads to vintage declaration. A year marked by stress or a year marked by growth. 2016 is a perfect example of non-stress and slow but steady growth as temperature were never high enough to stress the vines, which means concentration and sugar came from photosynthesis. On the other side, a year like 2017 where high temperature and lack or rain brought hydric stress in the vineyards affecting phenolics but concentrating the sugar and flavours in the berries.

Too much of one or not enough of the other will not be a year for vintage but definitively there are years that reflect more the stress or the growth in the vineyards. Which is the beauty of Vintage that reflects the season.

Frederick Blais wrote:It is not black or white, but they are clearly 2 types of growing seasons that leads to vintage declaration. A year marked by stress or a year marked by growth. 2016 is a perfect example of non-stress and slow but steady growth as temperature were never high enough to stress the vines, which means concentration and sugar came from photosynthesis. On the other side, a year like 2017 where high temperature and lack or rain brought hydric stress in the vineyards affecting phenolics but concentrating the sugar and flavours in the berries.

Too much of one or not enough of the other will not be a year for vintage but definitively there are years that reflect more the stress or the growth in the vineyards. Which is the beauty of Vintage that reflects the season.

Thanks. It's easy to make simple generalities when in reality what makes a great VP year is far more complicated. And I'm only speaking of weather/growing issues.


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but they are clearly 2 types of growing seasons that leads to vintage declaration

And also (as a result) two types of wine that are considered declarable. What I would term a Portuguese vintage is one where the wines are superbly rich and fruit driven, whereas an English vintage is one where the wines have great depth and intensity. There are also some vintages that combine both attributes. The Portuguese vintages tend to mature earlier and start to creak when they pass their half century, whereas English vintages are really blossoming at that age. It's notable that the SQ wines from some undeclared vintages with English characteristics can start showing remarkably well when they get old - '65 and '68 are both drinking superbly now, if well cellared.

My suspicion is that 2016 will prove to be in the Portuguese mould, and 2017 the English one - but we'll see..