UK Wine Show 79 Rozes winemaker Antonio Saraiva

This show was published 30 November 2007

Overview

Port was first produced in 1756 in the Douro region. The Douro is a large region with 150,000 hectares vineyards planted around the Douro river. The soil is schist which protects the vines from the humidity. It is hot and dry with high temperatures in summer of 40-45 degrees. The region has a Mediterranean micro climate and is protected from the Atlantic by mountains. The concentration of heat is reflected in the wines. The productivity is very low with yields of 6 tonnes/45 hectalitres per hectare. The vineyards are classified by letters - top is A, bottom is F. Points are awarded according to the altitude - important for the concentration of sugar. The closer to the river the greater the humidity. Irrigation is necessary throughout the region.
The top grape from a Grade A vineyard for making port is Touriga Nacional - a host of other varieties are grown including Tinta Barrocca.

The Interprofessional Council looks at how much stock is in the pipeline in order to decide how much port to produce each year. The Port Wine Institute controls how much brandy is available to produce port with. Because the region produces two wines - Port and Douro still wine - they can decide how much of each is required. Normally twice as much Douro wine is produced compared to port and the still wine is used to produce some of the brandy.

Rozes are still planting but overall the land under vine/grape production is not increasing - they are replacing high quantity/yielding vineyards with high quality/low yielding vines.

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Music

The music used for the UK Wine Show is Griffes de Jingle 1 by Marcel de la Jartèle and Silence by Etoile Noire.