Portugal: preliminary report, 2011 vintage

I’ve recently posted a heap of first hand reports from winemakers about the 2011 vintage in Australia, also Charles & Philippa Sydney’s annual preliminary vintage report on the Loire.  Here’s ViniPortugal’s preliminary report on how 2011 is shaping up in Portugal:

Overview

“Compared to the 2010/2011 harvest Portugal expects a decrease in quantity in the region of 1.2 to 1.5 Million hectolitres.

The weather conditions are the main reasons for the expected reduction. This is due to high humidity and heat experienced between April and June that led to the development of outbreaks of mildew in all producing regions, affecting the health and vegetative development of the vines.

The decline in volume has affected most of Portugal’s wine regions with the exception of Minho where the forecasts point to an increase of 5%.

On the wine-producing Islands of Portugal, Madeira maintains the production levels reached last year, while in the Azores there is a predictable increase of 65% (this order of magnitude is due to the substantial decrease experienced in the previous year).

Regarding quality; if the weather conditions remain stable until the end of the harvest, the predictions are for a good quality year with white wines characterised by freshness and balance with good acidity and red wines with good colour and aromatic expression.

Winemakers’ quotes by region

Vinho Verde (Manuel Soares – Aveleda)

“The year 2011 in the Vinho Verde region, was of great work in the vineyard, both in terms of treatments against mildew, or by the rapid growth of the plant. With a historically early start, the harvest has started in August with a good balance of the principal grape varieties, such as the Loureiro and Alvarinho. Other more sensitive varieties such as Trajadura, we had a little earlier harvesting to keep the acidity and fresh aromas.

Overall is a great year!”

Bairrada (Mário Sérgio – Quinta das Bágeiras)

“For my vintage I can report that the white wines base of the sparkling wines and for table wine quality has been very good. Compared to last year I expect an increase of about 10%.  Regarding the quality of the red wines is still difficult to define but if the weather remains warm and dry the quality might be high and have a great year for wine made with Baga.  The amount should have an increase of 5%.”

Douro (João Nicolau de Almeida – Ramos Pinto)

“After the strong heat wave of June the vines suffered, a good part of the bunches of grapes drying, especially Tinto Barroca. This phenomenon has advanced the ripeness of the white wine vintage bring it back to early August. About 15 days earlier than normal. The second half of August began with the red wine in the Douro Superior. The musts in fermentation are very colour, good acidity, plenty of fruit and tannins. In the Upper Corgo harvest should begin in the first half of September.  With regards to quantity, I think that because of the strong heat, the volume will be about 20% less than in previous year.”

Dão (Manuel Vieira – Quinta dos Carvalhais –  Sogrape)

“It is too early to assess the quality, but we have good prospects for this year’s harvest. We do not anticipate loss of production in general because although we had some production losses in some varieties these were offset by others where we have increased production”

Lisboa (Vasco Penha Garcia – Bacalhoa)

“On Quinta dos Loridos we predict that the production is identical to last year, a drop in white varieties offset by increases in the reds.  We have finished the harvest for the production of sparkling base wines getting musts of very high quality. The fermentation has just started, the expectations are very high.  We expect the maturation to be ideal for grapes producing still white and red wines. Here too, the expectations are high.   If everything goes as expected. Weather forecasts indicate stable weather without rain; it will be an exceptional year in the Lisbon region.”

Tejo (Diogo Campilho – Quinta da Lagoalva)

“In some plots the quantity of the white grapes has risen, at the end of the harvest the average was higher than last year. The grapes reveal an excellent acidity.  In red grapes we have noticed a balanced maturation but they have not been harvested yet. We believe that we have about 20% less production, because of the rains of early September, let’s hope we aren’t too disappointed.

Península de Setúbal (Domingos Soares Franco – José Maria da Fonseca)

“The harvest began in the third week of August. In our view the volume forecast amount is lower compared to last year. Regarding the quality of musts tasted we are confident about the quality.”

Alentejo (David Baverstock – Esporão)

“As we are in the middle of the harvest, we still can’t draw definitive conclusions. But to date, has gone very well, both in terms of quality and quantity. The summer is mild, with very cool nights, has provided good quality grapes, red wines with good acidity and lots of color, as well as very fresh and aromatic white. The amount of grapes, for producers who were not affected by the attacks of mildew in the spring, appears to be identical to last year. ”

Algarve (Rui Virgínia – Quinta do Barranco Longo)

“The production is much lower than last year by about 20% to 25%. Farmers and technicians that focused on prevention as a strategy for treating the vines were successful and had an effective protection of their production. Summer in the Algarve had normal temperatures for the time of year with no heat waves. The cool nights in August provided excellent temperature ranges for the ripening of the grapes.”