Photo

portugal: douro

Quinta do Tedo, Douro

Quinta do Tedo, Douro

In 2001 UNESCO declared the Douro Valley a World Heritage Site because it represents a unique example of people’s relationship with nature. There is evidence that Romans grew vines (and olives and cereals) on its steep slopes, and certainly in Medieval times Cistercian monks expanded terraces and cultivated vines at three monasteries along the river. "Port wine" was mentioned in the written record as early as 1675, a time when the viticulture was expanding and gaining in importance. The 1703 Methuen Treaty between England and Portugal specifically opened the wine trade between the two countries (England was looking for an alternative source of wine to its nemesis, France), and led to the establishment of English Port lodges. In one of the earliest examples of a formal wine demarcation, the Portuguese government drew up geographical boundaries for Douro Valley wine production in 1756. These boundaries closely paralleled the band of schist that lines either side of the river for 60-odd miles, hemmed in by granite. With some modification, the border remains in place today, but the demarcation applied only to fortified wine up to 1979. Until the late 20th century, fortified wine ruled the roost, although signs of insurrection appeared in the middle of that century.

In 1952 an enologist named Fernando Dicolau de Almeida launched Barca Velha. He worked for the house of Ferreira but was inspired by Bordeaux. His creation would become the iconic dry red wine of the Douro, but would remain little more than a nuisance to Port’s dominance in the decades to follow. That dominance legally ended in 1986 when Portugal joined the EEC, resulting in the revamping of Port production laws and letting growers bottle their production rather than forcing them to sell it to the lodges and shippers. The 1990s consequently witnessed an outbreak of top quality dry wines, and Barca Velha’s relative isolation came to an end.

It was at that time that Vincent Bouchard, scion of the Burgundy Bouchard Père et Fils family, purchased Quinta do Tedo. He had lived most of his life in California, where he had gone in 1979 and by dent of hard work became the primary broker of French barrels to American wineries. He married a Californian and raised a family. In 1989, he visited the Douro Valley with his wife, Kay. The experience proved to be transformative, and Vincent returned time and again to hike through the vineyards of the Alto Douro, Port’s finest appellation, until he came across Quinta do Tedo. Vincent wanted to make world class Port and dry wine; the quinta met every criteria. He bought it in 1992.

Quinta do Tedo is classed as a Single Quinta, or estate, meaning that its production comes entirely from its own vineyards. These vineyards are further classed "A," equivalent to grand cru, in a ranking system devised by the authorities going from A to F. In addition to fruit and olive orchards, there are 14 hectares (35 acres) of vines growing on the quinta’s terraces. The quinta is located within an ecological preserve, and its vineyards are farmed organically with the aid of a horse and workers, and harvested by hand. The vineyards are broken down as follows:

The 18th century quinta sits on the south side of the Douro River at its confluence with the smaller Tedo. Its 10 hectares of mixed old vines is normal for a vineyard of the Douro, where more than 90 varieties are permitted for use in fortified wine production. All of those varieties are native to the Iberian Peninsula. Indeed, as far as indigenous varieties are concerned, Portugal went through most of the 20th century in splendid isolation, resulting in the preservation of some 1,800 native wine grapes—a remarkable treasure that is still largely unstudied.

The possibility and potential of the Douro are what captivated Vincent. He understood that great wines could be made here, especially if one went to lengths to preserve freshness and purity of fruit. To that end, Quinta do Tedo has the distinct advantage of being a small domaine with all of its vineyards around the winery, thus the distance the grapes must travel after picking is minimal. Harvest is by hand in the mornings, and the grapes are de-stemmed entirely, then crushed traditionally—and systemically in stages—by feet in lagares. A lagare is an open fermentation tank, in this case two and a half feet deep, made of granite. Vincent improved upon this traditional vessel by lining the sides and bottom of his lagares with water pipes, enabling him to cool and control the temperature. Once in barrel, the wines are topped off assiduously and never fined.

Vincent makes his Ports and wines with the aid of enologist Jorge Alves. Currently 20% of the production is in table wine, the remainder in Port.

Dry Wines

Portos