2010 Weather and Growing Conditions

[Derek T.]

Very early days but grapes in perfect condition. Douro Superior coming in nicely. I saw some superb Tinta Barroca from Vesuvio for table wine yesterday, lovely flavour, very fresh, good graduations.
Malvedos starts Monday. Cavadinha as is expected is a little more backward. I also did Bomfim, looking fantastic and fruit looking exceptional and Alvito, my father's vineyard just above Cavadinha, also perfect and similar to Cavadinha.
The key this year is going to be flexibility in picking schedules because maturities can still be a bit variable although the weather has cooled somewhat, it was only(!) 32ºC. at Malvedos yesterday afternoon... although the mornings are now much cooler.
The rain threatened but didn't appear, some large drops which didn't even settle the dust although the air was noticeably more humid yesterday.

It was interesting to see the effect of the Marão mountains when I drove up early yesterday morning and then back down late evening. From Porto, all the way to Amarante was under heavy cloud and morning mist which became quite thick as I rose up into it climbing the Marão. As soon as I crested the top, at 1,010 mts. and started dropping down to Vila Real it started to clear and when I dropped into the Douro valley it was lovely but with quite a lot of "big fluffy clouds" - actually really beautiful in the early morning light!
On my return in the evening I could see the clear effect of the Marão with huge banks of clouds backed up against the western side of the mountains.

[Cynthia J]

Dear Andy - I am chuckling madly at your description of our last post as "cool nerdy"... what's the line, "I resemble that remark" ??
Look forward to seeing you soon somewhere in the Douro
Your devoted Graham's blogger
Cynthia

[Andy Velebil]

Dear Andy - I am chuckling madly at your description of our last post as "cool nerdy"... what's the line, "I resemble that remark" ??
Look forward to seeing you soon somewhere in the Douro
Your devoted Graham's blogger
Cynthia

And we also resemble that remark I look forward to seeing you to and keep the "cool nerdy" info coming

[Roy Hersh]

Given the slightly late start to the harvesting this year, I am optimistic that we'll be able to get into some lagares and do some treading in early October!

See you soon Cynthia.

[Andy Velebil]

Given the slightly late start to the harvesting this year, I am optimistic that we'll be able to get into some lagares and do some treading in early October!

See you soon Cynthia.

Woohoo!

[Andy Velebil]

The Malvedos blog

....I must say this year the Barroca grapes are looking particularly good, with very healthy sturdy looking bunches and the berries are sweet and full of flavour.... Fingers crossed it will stay good from now on.

Oscar Quevedo's page have some good updates recently posted.

# the weather is good, dry and clear, with temperatures between 20º to 30º.....
# day after day musts are showing deeper and deeper colors.....
# during the first days, grape juice tasted like strawberries, now is tasting like blackberries - one day it will taste like good Port Wine

things are looking good so far, lets all pray mother nature continues to cooperate

[Cynthia J]

Not sure if this qualifies as conditions update, but: Pleased to report that Derek Turnbull, Andy Velebil and Julian Wiseman were in good form last night, treading up a storm in the lagar at Vesuvio. Julian gave me quite a turn around the Tinta Roriz, I think I'm lucky there were all those grapes to slow us down, or I would have gone flying from those spins! Maybe it was the Graham's 1977 fuel (see Dominic and the bottle on Graham's facebook page). I will send photo of the lads to Roy and hopefully he will find time to post for you, in between all those hamburgers and fries. And by the way, weather continues good - Paul Symington was saying this morning at breakfast this is perfect harvest weather. It is clear, warm but not uncomfortable, absolutely glorious. Beijinhos.

[David Spriggs]

Holy cow! A Tappit Hen of Port! You don't see that every day.

[Cynthia J]

@ David - only my second sighting of a tappit hen - first was in January, a Dow's I think - shame on me for not remembering - now the Graham's. I tentatively asked Dominic what he was going to do with the empty bottle, but he said it goes right back to the bottling plant for re-use - they clean off all the wax from the seal and generally prepare for next bottling. Oh well...

@ Roy - your wish re being here during harvest should be granted, if I remember your itinerary correctly - Spoke with Henry Shotton today and picking should go through to 9 or 10 October, and then winery of course has a couple more days after that - hopes to be able to close up shop by 12th or 13th. But it means I may miss you in Porto on 10th if I am still in Douro. Keep me posted of your whereabouts, it would be a shame to miss each other.

Weather forecast continues "sunny and delightful" to quote the site... http://www.accuweather.com/en-us/pt/vil ... ecast.aspx That's for Vila Real - they get more rain and are typically about 4 degrees C cooler than us here at Malvedos, so mentally correct a bit when you look at it.

[Roy Hersh]

We should do our best to meet up at Vesuvio if at all possible. I am hoping you can arrange to meet us there a week from Thursday. Looking forward to meeting you in person Cynthia and sharing a glass or two.

[Symington Family]

Cynthia & Roy, I feel like a daring agency! ... what about at Vesuvio on 7th. Roy I promise I won't tell yout wife!
Weather is absolutely perfect but now distinctly cool in the morning and evening, bring pullovers! Maturations are still a bit varied and we're delaying TN & TF at Vesuvio to get a few more days of development.
Dom Symington

[Andy Velebil]

Finally got a few moments in front of a computer. This morning in Regua has been overcast and cloudy, which is just now starting to clear a little. Last I checked there is some possible rain likely this weekend, but one never knows until it actually a happens. The vast microclimates here in the Douro are very impressive. That said the weather has been perfect since my arrival last Friday. More later...

[Cynthia J]

Hi, yes, we had that heavy cloud cover this morning at Malvedos too, but cleared off by lunch time and is sunny and warm and glorious again. Accuweather site (link above) now shows rain Sunday in Vila Real, but as always, who knows if it will reach us? Day 11 today of fine harvest and fine weather.

Can't resist mentioning - I know many of you are fans of Miles Edlmann's (research viticulturalist at Graham's) - check out our blog and what he has written (posted today), for some intriguing developments. http://malvedos.wordpress.com/2010/09/3 ... adventure/

[Derek T.]

Weather is absolutely perfect but now distinctly cool in the morning and evening, bring pullovers!
Dom Symington

Dom,

I'm sending you a fresh supply of Scottish blood as you are obviously running low if you think the Douro is currently "distinctly cool"

[Cynthia J]

Just fyi - barring showers last sunday and one overnight rainfall during the week, it has been dry and we have been harvesting steadily at Malvedos. All those week-ahead forecasts which scared us last Sunday and Monday turned out to be wrong, at least here... we've had a couple gloriously sunny days this week, a couple have been mix of sun and overcast, but all dry during the day and no harvesting time lost. Fingers crossed, we should finish cutting tomorrow at Malvedos and Tua.

[Andy Velebil]

After spending 2 1/2 weeks in the Douro I've had the chance to experience a wide range of it and the diversity it holds. When the rain hit, some places got rain and some didn't, or some got far more than others. Some high up on the ridge had high winds that knocked off some grape bunches while others didn't. Some Quinta's had some good late ripening of the grapes while others were still waiting and praying the grapes would complete maturation before the bad weather hit. A very topsy-turby year for sure.

As the old saying goes.... it's all about location, location, location. And this year that seems to have played a very important role. The assessments I've heard were between a not so good year to a good vintage but unsure if a fully declared year would happen. Keep in mind that's painting a broad picture and in fact it's really too early to state anything definitively until the grapes have had a chance to rest over winter and the first of many evaluations take place. Overall most producers I've spoken to all agreed that this has not been an easy harvest.

One thing to note is due to all the rain last winter yields were generally up quite a bit, 30% or so for some. So that at least gives them more grapes to be very selective with and helps to build up stocks for the lower tier products.

[Roy Hersh]

This was the final wrap up report by Paul Symington who provides his perspective on the 2010 harvest. Thank you Paul!


Harvest Report 2010

After three very dry years, the winter of 2010 saw an extraordinary change and the Douro had an absolute deluge. There were days in the vineyards when all that could be heard from every quarter was the sound of running water. Being an area of mountain vineyards, this brought us considerable problems of erosion and fallen stone walls; it was a challenging and very expensive winter. At Bomfim we had 50% more rainfall from October to March 2010, 789 mm instead of the mean 524mm. This was a lot of additional water, but much needed.

The world’s great vineyards are all famed for their particular soils and how these cope with drainage, and the Douro is no different. A wet winter is vital in order to replenish the humidity deep in the schistous rock of our vineyards. Rarely has a wet winter been as important as this one. We had no rain at all in July and August, literally not one millimetre for more than 8 weeks. These are not normally wet months, but the long-term mean is 10mm and 28mm respectively and this is valuable. To add to this challenge, August was hot with average daily maximum temperature over 35⁰ C. To quote Miles Edlmann, one of the members of our viticultural research team; ‘Vines need humidity and temperatures below 35⁰C to photosynthesise, so it came as no surprise to see that maturation this summer was delayed’.

Once again the ability of our Douro grape varieties to cope with the harsh climate became evident. In a hot July and August, the considerable leaf growth resulting from the wet winter was most welcome as the abundant leaves shaded the bunches and gave the vine more ability to ripen the fruit. The old vines with deep roots were better off and in the Douro these roots can go down 25 metres and more. Here amongst the deep fissures of our particular schistous rock there was thankfully still plenty of humidity this year. Many expensive hours were spent watering the 6 month and 18 month old vines in July and August, or many would have certainly died. The upside of the lack of summer rain was that the grapes were almost entirely free of any disease and were in very good condition, minimal treatments having been needed.

We had a delayed cycle this year, so we started picking some 5 days later than usual, on the 13th September at Quinta do Vesuvio, the 16th at Sra Ribeira, Telhada, Vale Coelho and Tua. Quinta dos Malvedos, Bomfim and Retiro started on the 20th and Cavadinha was started only on the 23rd in its cooler and higher position.

It soon became clear that some varieties had coped a lot better than others. The Nacional had very good phenolic maturation, but was held back by my cousin Charles Symington and our vineyard manager Pedro Leal de Costa, almost to the end in order to get a more complete ripeness. Miles writing ‘the Nacional had very dark seeds early on and the flavours were well developed’. The juggling act that we have every year was played out again. Chancing the weather forecasts, analysing the impact of the small showers on the 1st (1.6mm) and the 7th September (2.4mm), with another 6.6 mm on the 17th, all make the difference between making good wines and making really great wines. It was decided to bring in the Barroca first, followed by the Roriz, with the Nacional only coming in at the end of the month just before the Franca. Picking was actually suspended for a few days on some of our vineyards to give the Nacional more time. This was an expensive and risky choice; the pickers have still to be paid or they will leave and are most unlikely to come back, and the weather forecast may not be right…

It appears at this early stage (some tanks are still fermenting) that the Touriga Franca, always a late ripener, has performed less well in some vineyards this year. Franca did not like the conditions in some areas, but in others it was very fine. But the excellence of the Nacional has more than made up for this. Charles wrote ‘the wait was well worthwhile, the Nacional musts being well balanced with good colour, producing wines with very elegant aromas’.

Virtually throughout the harvest, we have had perfect weather. Charles wrote ‘The showers (in September) were small interruptions to the clear blue skies and pleasantly warm weather experienced throughout the entire month’. On the 3rd October, as often happens at this time, strong storms blew in from the west and over the Marão, and we had a lot of rain overnight in the Douro. But remarkably the weather improved again and the forecast heavy daily showers simply did not fall. Today, the weather is still fine as the last grapes come in.

So 2010 proved again that in the vineyard no two years are ever the same. Yet again we had a very different cycle for our vines and we have used our experience to try to get the very best from our fruit. Yields have been larger than the last two years, which were very low, but we have only returned to normal productions at our own vineyards. Overall the region is likely to have had quite a large year.

Once again our family were managing two large wineries, Sol and Bomfim and we again ran no fewer than 7 small specialist wineries at Vesuvio, Sra Ribeira, Canais, Tua, Malvedos, Cavadinha and Roriz. Each small winery had its dedicated team making no more than a few hundred pipes. They are now finishing some 5 weeks of non-stop work as this report is being written. Our wine making teams have made some very good Ports and DOC wines this year, they now deserve a few days off.

For additional and detailed information about the 2010 harvest go to:

http://malvedos.wordpress.com/

Here can be found the real life story of how Port is made.



Paul Symington Portugal, 17th October 2010