All of our Managers and wine staff travel at least once a year to important wine growing regions. Visiting these wine regions is one of the many aspects that sets Joe Canal's apart from other wine shops. We know that by meeting the wine makers, walking the vineyards and tasting the wine directly from the barrel, we can see first-hand the passion that goes into each bottle. We can then convey that commitment to quality to our customers. Rather than have you just look at a label or a score, we believe that it is our responsibility to bring you closer to how the wine was made and to the people who made it.
In June 2010, Brandon Bartfalvi, Wine Manager of the Lawrenceville store, had the privilege of traveling to Portugal and immersing himself in Portuguese food, culture, and most importantly, wine!
Day 3 - Quinta do Vesuvio
We took the train north up the Douro to the winery. The scenery was amazing: steep hillsides, several different Port producers, even a luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere (apparently it’s around $1800 US dollars a night). We trekked farther north and saw one of the dams built on the Douro making the once fast-rushing river into a more serene, peaceful body of water. After about forty five minutes we reached the winery, sort of. The winery and vineyards lay several hundreds of meters above us on steep hillsides so we took the provided transportation to the sites.We packed into two trucks, many of us sitting in the back of these vehicles on hard metal benches. They weren’t that bad until you hit the rocky roadways up the mountainsides. We traveled for about ten to fifteen minutes by truck and reached a lookout point in the vineyards. From here you could see the surrounding vineyards and the winery below us. At this point Rupert led us on the tour of the grounds.
He explained the grape types used, the vineyards used for each specific bottling, and the surrounding vineyards role in the final blend. After this little tour he took us to the pombal which is a pigeon house. This is where name for the Pombal de Vesuvio wine came from (there is a picture of the pombal on the label). I found this interesting then ducked into the pombal to get out of the sun for a few minutes.
This part of the tour was very informative and interesting and you’ll see why in a second. This property is the crown jewel of the Symington family. This winery embodies the history and tradition of the Douro area. Every vintage Port that is produced here is of the highest quality and all of the fruit is from this Quinta and not sourced fruit from other vineyards. Furthermore, the grapes are all picked by hand and the treading (pressing of the fresh grapes) is still done by foot, not machine. They hire a band to play music while people tread the grapes rhythmically for hours inside the lagares (low walled stone tanks). This is what makes the winery so special and unique amongst the others.
Now it was time to eat and we were all thirsty and hungry. We had more home cooked meals and today’s was like a tuna casserole but made with an indigenous fish from the river. I went back for thirds and could have gone back for more but the day was young and there was a lot of wine to drink. With lunch, Rupert offered several different wines and Ports to sample. We had Quinta de Vesuvio Vintage Port 1994 and 2007 (which was incredible) and we also had the 2007 Pombal de Vesuvio Douro Tinto (which is one of my favorite red wines right now) and 2007 Vesuvio Douro Tinto, the big brother of the wines.Once lunch was complete we went for a short walk then made our way to the river for the second leg. We were visiting the Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira of Dow’s across the river from Vesuvio. I wasn’t sure if all of us were going to fit in the boat but we made it and nobody fell overboard. This was a short visit but an informative packed one at that.
This vineyard provides one of the integral parts of the final blend of Dows Vintage Port but in other years the best of these wines are made into single quinta vintage ports. We toured the house on the estate and then we toured the winery. This is where things became very interesting because once we entered the winery it was immediately clear that this was no Vesuvio. Oh the quality and care are the same but where Vesuvio was traditional this winery was modern. Vesuvio tread their grapes by foot still but things here at Dow’s were much different. The Symingtons invested (and invented) a new machine that would replicate the treading done by humans. As you will see in the pictures this huge machine still has a lugare but it is made of stainless steel and it tilts.
The machine was turned on and we got to witness how it operates. A metal device slides over the entire lugare and as it slides it stop and drops into the grapes gently crushing them with silicon “toes” on the bottom of it. This action replicates the treading action by humans. I grossly simplified the process but I do have a video available if anybody is truly interested.
After this segment of the tour it was off to the entrance where there were a few bottles to sample. Three different vintages were chosen for us to demonstrate the vast differences that exist in the same quinta but in different years. We sampled the 1999, 2004 and 2008 (cask sample) bottlings of this single quinta. Absolutely delicious offerings and this quinta is one I will keep my eye on when it’s available here in the States.
We took a few minutes after our tasting and took some pictures of the surroundings. Notice the chapel that is in the picture: this is the chapel dedicated to the Lady of the River (literally Senhora da Ribeira). Travelers would often stop here and pray for safe passage down the river. When I saw our boat and said a prayer, it was time to cross the river and catch the train back to Bomfim. Dinner was almost ready when we got back so we had something to drink than proceeded to eat. My favorite wine of the night was the Pombal de Vesuvio. It paired with the meal so well and it was just showing wonderfully.
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