The adega is a hive of activity today as we bottle Duas Pedras 2012. I spend the morning tasting quietly through the wines we have made this vintage. Our potential Duas Pedras blend, made from grapes picked before the rain, is already showing well with plenty of fresh fruit and a characteristic touch of spice. Trincadeira is, as always, our weakest variety but this year it has produced a clean, sappy wine that will lend freshness and finesse to our Pedra Basta lote.
After a week of heavy rain, today is the last day of vintage. We are picking the Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvignon, always the last of our grapes to ripen and they are especially late this year. We have lost a portion of our crop to the rain with rot affecting both the Trincadeira and some of the Touriga Nacional (mainly the grapes on the deeper soils which are bigger and susceptible to berry burst as the vines quickly take up water after the summer drought). We had to employ extra pickers and they have been very selective, leaving affected bunches on the vine.
This is turning into a rather fraught vintage. It has been raining since last Thursday and pick has had to come to a halt. Two more days of rain are forecast before the sunshine returns. This was always a risk with a late harvest like this. My 55 day calculation (see entry 8th August) was about right!
I am now back in the UK so following vintage (or lack of it from afar) before I return to Portalegre next week. We have a slogan for this year’s harvest, written on a whiteboard in the adega fo all to see:
Com talento ganhamos partidas,