For The Love Of Port

Vintage Port quality should not be compromised, ever. VP is their house’s finest example of manufacture and is what they are known for. I think it is “pound foolish” for them to alter a time proven tradition. Future development with a long term goal of producing table wines with out compromising port quality is the wisest move. Don’t play with what you have and works; invest and cultivate something new in addition to what you already have.

When visiting the Douro a few weeks ago I was surprised at the amount of land that is not currently under vine. There were many hundreds of acres of abandoned terraces next to some of the best known Quinta's in the region. Perhaps as Douro reds become more popular and demand increases there will be the incentive and capital available to re-generate some of these areas and/or to re-plant some of the neglected Quinta's to boost quality as well as volume. Given that the Douro region does not appear to be running at full capacity of output I don't see why good quality port and dry red cannot co-exist.

Derek

Derek Turnbull wrote:When visiting the Douro a few weeks ago I was surprised at the amount of land that is not currently under vine.

Given that the Douro region does not appear to be running at full capacity of output I don't see why good quality port and dry red cannot co-exist.

Derek

That is good news for us.

Moses Botbol wrote:
That is good news for us.

I agree, the only problem is we all have to drink more to ensure the shippers have the money to invest in re-planting the unused terraces

Derek

More like the money to RE-build all those old terraces. Since some are almost 300 years old and made by hand of schist, they are very expensive to rebuild.

It was interesting though, many of those empty terraces were abandoned after Phyloxia hit and have not been used since. Lot of prime area to replant

Andy V. wrote:More like the money to RE-build all those old terraces. Since some are almost 300 years old and made by hand of schist, they are very expensive to rebuild.

It was interesting though, many of those empty terraces were abandoned after Phyloxia hit and have not been used since. Lot of prime area to replant

I am not 100% sure but I do think that one can't destroy these terraces and built "patamares" on those abandonned hills. These terraces are protected under law. You can have money to rebuild or maintain your terraces from the EU gouvernment.

So it is too costly for most companies and especially takes too much time to build and repair these old teraces compared to the time to dynamite and bulldoze some patamares. This is why we see new vineyards built instead of using that old lands.

Yeap, IIRC, it took about 16 days to build a 16' section of terrace in the old days! Thats a lot of manual labor considering how many Kilometers of old terraces there are to rebuild.

I agree that conservation is a good thing but from what I saw in the Douro there are more than enough ancient terraces to allow some areas to be given up for re-planting, even if the original terraces are lost.

The Douro has survived on tradition and history for quite some time but the modern world will not allow that to continue. Giving up some (90%) of these dissused terraces would, IMHO, be worth the loss to gain the additional land within the region to grow prime quality vines. The remaining 10% could be protected forever as the museum piece whilst letting the growers make the most of the land available within this restricted space.

Derek

This is truly one of the most interesting threads and we can discuss this for eons as there are so many different dynamics involved, we can explore and continue to find new topics within this one.

Andy wrote:

Yeap, IIRC, it took about 16 days to build a 16' section of terrace in the old days! Thats a lot of manual labor considering how many Kilometers of old terraces there are to rebuild.

I am not sure where this information came from but it reminds me of a mention about terracing from Suckling's book on Vintage Port (I read that book more times than I care to admit) which mentioned that it took two men, two full weeks to repair a stone wall in a terrace that was about 10 feet high and 20 feet in length. I am pretty sure that was the dimensions, but regardless, it takes a long time to do so and there are few artisans around to still do this type of work. I find the minutia involved in the tiny topic of terracing in the Douro, absolutely fascinating. I long ago thought about doing a book on this topic, as I have done my share of research on it, but then realized it would probably sell only 3 or 4 copies.

Anyway, Derek's comments on the "dead terraces" or moratórioswhich are the vineyards that were left after Phylloxera and never replanted ... part due to money, part due to labor and part due to superstition ... along with his belief that there is a lot of unused vineyard land that could be utilized, is quite interesting. Of course, the patamares are more practical and easy and inexpensive to build compared to the overhauling of the moratórios. However, the quantity of vines per hectare of patamares is about half (3,300 vph versus about 6,000) of what traditional terracing methods would allow for. That is why vinha ao alta was devised. Not only to allow for planting vertically on semi-steep situations, but to increase the vines per hectare to about 5,000.

Fascinating topic and I hope we can continue the diversity of layers here.

One more thought on the original subject:

Since the Wine Spectator did their very recent article on the Douro table wine revolution and late in the first quarter of 2007, Mark Squires' article and reviews of the Douro wines will appear for the first time in the Wine Advocate, (Robert Parker's periodical) there seems to be a massive snow ball effect taking place that is even bigger than one year ago, not to mention five years or a decade ago when people first started to take notice.

With the Douro red wines getting annual coverage, it is not too much of a stretch to realize that it is plausible for the Douro table wines to eclipse the small amount of media coverage that Port production currently receives. When ... not IF ... this happens, will great Portmakers like the Dirk van der Niepoort, Cristiano van Zeller, the couples: Moreira and Borges etc... be able to stay as focused on Port?

With declarations of Port coming 3-4x per decade, not to mention more frequent releases of their LBVs, SQVPs and Tawnies ... how will they find the time to manage both Port and table wine production in the future? Is the answer to have different winemaking teams for each? I am certainly aware that this takes place at some of the fine producers like Quinta do Crasto and Niepoort today ... but do you think this would become even more specialized where there is little crossover between Portmakers and the oenologists responsible for the table wines?

Keep your opinions coming ... as I have a feeling this topic will keep going like the Energizer bunny.

Roy, I am going to say you are right, as I had more than a few glasses that day when someone mentioned it, so exact numbers are a bit of a blur

I can easily see Douro wines surpassing Port production one day. Mainly due to Port being more of a nitch market for geeks like us. Yes, there are other factors as well. But try having a conversation about Port with a wine geek. They can talk your ear off about California Cabs, Right and Left Banks, Super Tuscans, etc. But bring up Port and they stare at you with a blank look and then change the subject.

Another factor is all the publicity itself. As you mentioned with Wine Spectators report, and the up coming Parker article (by Mark Squires) will have an influence. So many people buy only based on a "Parker score" and the amount of attention his, and other, wine magazines give a particular region. Sad, but that is just how it is? What happens when the publicity dies??

The hardest part I see is the quantity that can be supplied by Douro wine makers. There is a lot of average stuff, but very little great stuff. If wine geeks can't get their hands on it for a year or two in a row, will they get turned off to Douro wines?

I think most will ultimately have seperate winemaking teams or even making the dry wine a separate "sister" part of the company. Making a great Port is not the same as making a great dry wine.

My biggest fear is that with all the sudden publicity it will be the Merlot of the 2000's. Here today and gone tomorrow when the hype dies down.

WARNING, a bit touchy subject here:
The Port trade needs to stop hiding and be more interactive with the buying public. I can go to Parkers site and get direct answers from the producer himself, in a public forum. This is the millineum, and the Port trade needs to lose that "Stiff upper lip" and get with it. What do they fear? Besides this, it's amazing how much more loyal people are to a brand, especially in bad years, if there is a direct connection to the producers themselves.

I think this could be the single biggest down fall for the Port/wine industry in Portugal.

Just my