David Spriggs wrote:When we were at Quinta do Bomfim this October, we saw that all of the wines appeared to be made by autovinification. I was shocked by that. My understanding was that autovinification was an inferior method for making Vintage Port... but obviously I've had to rethink that. So my question...What is the thinking of the Symingtons with respect to trodding grapes? Do they have a preference between foot trodding, robotic lagars, autovinitication, etc? What is their thinking behind what method they have chosen to use at each property?
This is a good question – really glad you asked it.
Less than 20% of all Port sales are in the ‘premium category’, i.e. Reserve Ports and above. The Douro, like every other wine region in the world, does not only produce super premium wines.
That means that over 80% of the Douro’s grapes are made into Ruby or White Ports. It is quite simply not practical or remotely economic to make these wines in lagares. This became clear to all in the Douro in the late 1960’s. So alternative methods of vinification are required for the Ports that make up the majority of sales around the world.
It is just a question of using the appropriate vinification method for the different styles of Ports.
The Symingtons are proud of the fact that they make more Port in lagares than any other producer in the Douro. Approximately half of the lagar-made Port is made in traditional lagares and half in the modern ‘automated treaders’ (the robotic lagares). The total of the lagar-made Port produced every year exceeds our total sales of Premium Ports from Graham’s, Dow’s, Warre’s, Smith Woodhouse and Quinta do Vesuvio.
So lagar-made Port is our preferred method of making our finest Ports, but not to the complete exclusion of all others.
As you know the Symington's pioneered the use of sophisticated winemaking technology in the Douro with their Robotic Treading Lagares. Here it is important to make a distinction between those machines that actually tread the grapes, and those that simply push down the cap - they are by no means equal. Simply plunging the cap without first having properly tread the grapes, is not the way to make great Port. The Symingtons steadfastly believe in the importance of
real treading, both manual and automated, rather than the widespread use of machines that just punch the cap down. Again, cap punching is not the same as real treading, the resulting wines lack structure and body. See our paper on automated treaders elsewhere on FTLOP; automated treaders can exceed traditional foot treading in quality terms for several reasons.
OK, now lets tackle the question of autovinifiers. Here PR spin has once again collided with the truth. Some people have said that autovinifiers are ‘violent’. This would be laughable if it was not downright dishonest. It is true that the regular release of the CO2 (as generated in every type of fermentation vessel) makes a sudden noise. But this action of releasing the gas has absolutely nothing to do with the wine inside the tank. The release of the C02 simply allows the wine in the top ‘tray’ to run back over the ‘cap’ underneath in a way that is no different to any pumping-over fermenter as used all over the world. I ask you what the difference is between this and a person hosing down the cap with the juice that has been pumped up through a pipe from the bottom of the tank? Occasional visitors are surprised by this noise and so readily believe a story about autovinifiers somehow being ‘violent’. Well I am sorry to put reality in the way of a good story. And its worth noting that autovinifiers can operate without any external power source, so they significantly reduce the winery’s carbon foot-print.
As a final thought, consider this: an autovinifier costs almost double the cost of a conventional pumping-over tank because the stainless steel (in the case of the modern ones) has to be of a thicker gauge and it needs two valves, one for the wine to run over the cap and one for the CO2 release. So why buy an expensive autovinifier if a regular fermenting tank, costing half the money, does a better job?
The truth is that for years we have been amused by some of the misleading stories that are told and have quietly been going on making some simply outstanding Ports using this tried and tested method. Used well, by those who understand them, an autovinifier makes very good Ports.
I forwarded your question to Paul Symington, and he responded with a long email on this topic, some of which I paraphrased above. He closed his email to me with the following, which I want to share with you:
My family has been making Port from father to son for 5 generations in the Douro. We have the experience of countless Port harvests that we have used to develop several different methods of making Port. At the end of the day our Ports speak for themselves. We are very satisfied that how we farm our vineyards and how we vinify their grapes, has resulted in the fact that at the major international tastings (especially the blind tastings) our wines, at every level are usually classified at the very top.
I couldn't have said it better.