Fires in the Douro Valley

[Glenn E.]

Quevedo Port Wines posted the following on Facebook:

This is the saddest post we have ever made. Last night a wildfire started very close to our Quinta da Alegria and by the middle of the night all the vineyards were surrounded by flames. The vines were barely burned (only the ones at the extremes of the Quinta) but sadly, the fire kept burning more and more hectares of woods around it. We are devastated to see our magnificent Douro burn. We send a big THANK YOU to the firemen and volunteers fighting against the raging fire.

Let's keep all of our friends in Portugal in our thoughts!

[Eric Ifune]

Hopefully it's isolated.

[Frederick Blais]

Hail in France, fires in the Douro, nature is not kind for vineyards...

On the positive side, the low density of easily burning nature in the vineyards is helping to stop the spread unless the winds are strong. But the devastation of native nature is quite negative for the balance and diversity as non native plants are taking over at the moment.

Beside isolated thunderstorms, fires are mostly started by careless human activities. In 2019 I did withness a wild fire getting out of control in 5 minutes by a driver throwing his cigarette out of the window. Luckilly an hellicopter came fast with enough water to get this under control.

[Glenn E.]

In 2019 I did withness a wild fire getting out of control in 5 minutes by a driver throwing his cigarette out of the window. Luckilly an hellicopter came fast with enough water to get this under control.

My wife helped prevent something like this here in Sammamish last month as she was walking to the shopping center. A cigarette butt had started to smolder in some bark. Someone was already trying to stomp it out, and they got it under control, but by the time my wife was returning it was smoldering again. So she got one of the local stores to provide a bucket of water and help her fully extinguish it, but it could have easily been much worse.

People are so careless.

[Frederick Blais]

A friend was in the Douro yesterday and he reported some strong isolated showers that were definitively very welcomed.

[Andy Velebil]

Super sad. One tiny bright spot is vines don't burn easily, usually just the outside row or two if there is fuel next to it that burns. However, the loss of life and property due to wildfires is horrible.

[Frederick Blais]

THis website gives you the status on the active fires and the zones at risk :

https://www.jn.pt/nacional/infografias/ ... 12492.html

[Roy Hersh]

Many of the fires burning across Portugal are from carelessness and some with intent, sadly. In PT so far this year, the quantity of hectares burned is nearly 4x all of 2021. Currently in Douro, the temperatures are low-mid 30s (C.) and with moderate winds. Of course it is hard to generalize in such a vast region. RH remains fairly high, but there has been no signs of any rain in ... many weeks. The Dao region is even worse in terms of fires and the Algarve has been hit pretty bad so far this year.

[Mark L]

Thanks for the update, Roy. Praying for you all!

[Frederick Blais]

I've just returned from a few days in the Douro. In almost 20 years of visiting this region yearly, I've never seen it so dry. By that I mean, never I have seen so many rusty patch of tree and bushes. The native vegetation really suffured this year, hopefully the trees will recover from their dessicated leaves. The vines did not seem to have suffured as much 2018 for example.

So far, the wineries I've asked all report of uneven ripeness, small berries, low yields, high PH(low acidity). Maybe a good year for Vintage.