ThePortForum.com

Nooooooooooo

From what I know Derek is very busy with work. He was supposed to join me at Napoles but could not because of a last minute change, the 3 days he is taking now are very tight with his schedule, worth trying though!

Luc I don't have the right answer for you but here is what I suspect. Higher vineyards do not have necessarely more sun, it always depends on the orientation of the slope. If they are on top, the density is higher and there is more shadow form other vines. For the rain, well on top there is always m...

As far as I know the granite lagar does not exclude solely human treading, if I got you right, Frederic. For example La Rosa has a granite lagar and they do not have machines to do the treading. Either Im misunderstanding something or I dont know why one and the other dont match. Greetings to Canad...

This year again I couldn’t resists to visit this wonderful country that is Portugal. This time, I mainly focused around the Douro region where I stayed 12 days. It is with great joy that the Niepoort family received me at the Quinta do Napoles during the harvest to share with me the work and the eve...

100% robotic lagares are operating in stainless steel environment, could the granite make the difference? many Quintas use the robotics in granite lagars, so not sure that has much bearing on it...but I will add this to my list of questions to ask next week, as I'd love to see what the producers ha...

Fred, Horses for courses - if you are wedded to first releases then young tannic wines may impress, but I am personally a little averse to young tannic 'bite'. I do not actively seek to drink any vintage port under ten years old, as I consider such wines to be hopelessly immature. I acknowledge the...

Got some news today from Qta do Napoles. So far the quality is excellent, the favorable weather is improving the quality and they are really excited.

Lets hope it will stay stable!

100% robotic lagares are operating in stainless steel environment, could the granite make the difference?

I would go to the Douro ever year for a couple weeks to tread grapes. All I ask is a cot to sleep on and plenty of port to drink between shifts 88) Seriously, I do think treading makes a difference. There are lots of producers who have gone from treading to mechanical treading, and now back to huma...

Alex: Noval is not doing this. I have access to the press area and I think they did this last time, because that press-guy was there for 14 days and he actually did it. I've met David who did the report on Noval last year. He is now preparing something with the Douro boys. It is going to be on his ...

Here are the basics : What you want for quality is the longer skin contact with juice to get the most extract you can from the grapes in 3 days. By crushing the grapes in lagares, the skins will stick in the bottom, the pips will float on top. So you get more skin contact and less unwanted flavours ...

I can't say many journalist are receiving samples. I'd say many are attending events with many ports opened the same day. For the pannel, I guess you are looking for people in mainly based in England :cry: I like the idea though so if you need help getting in contact with some houses and producers, ...

Tom, I did not ask for more details since I came back. When I left the Douro on the 18th there was some isolated showers happening in different region of the Douro. The 19th was very warm in Porto Since then I don't know a thing that happened. I know these guys are very busy and I am too getting bac...

The neverending topic :lol: And I'll reply the same as I usually do 88) I have to protect my school of thinking. Experiment, try and build your palate for what YOU LIKE. Any port will last and will still be very drinkable 2 years after it was decanted. Yes I do prefer my VP with 3-6 hours, max 12 ho...

This is just another of those toys that does not really work.

well at last, heavy thunderstorm today during 1,5 hours. It is not welcome at the moment. The vines will absorb a lot of water because it has not receive any for a long time. Some berries will break and will increase the chance of rot in the next few days. So far for red wines it was looking to be a...

Tom, I don´t know on which website you are checking the weather? on my side, I often check on Yahoo for Vila Real forecast. What I can say is that it is much warmer around Pinhao than what they forecast for Vila Real. The last two days were easily around 35 Celsius. Harvest for dry wines is almos...

It means quite a few things.... For example : lets say 30% of your vineyard is not in good shape. It is cheaper to put the bulldozer and plant from scratch than to keep your old vines and only replace those not good. Some varieties as Tom points out are more sensitive to illness, so they just uproot...

Last night I had a very good dinner at DOC restaurant with a few winemakers and their wines. I was sitting with Alvaro Castro and his daughter Maria. They are great people, Alvaro is so funny! Anyway it was a good occasion to talk about the harvest and its quality. Rain is not needed at the moment, ...

About the losses, I had some discussions last night and it is not great news. The average lost is more or so 30%. Plus those who are sorting grapes can loose up to 15% due to grape illness causing the berry to dry, rotten and mildew fruit are also other causes. Some vineyards are saying they´ll b...

Fred - do the vines need any more rain now, or are the grapes adequately swelled? Tom During the week end I was able to take some walks in the vineyards of the douro. I can say that it is not an even situation. On the same vineyards, some grapes were badly affected by mildew as some others were com...

Fresh news from the field. Ill do it quickly and sorry for mistype due to Portuguese keyboard. Early 2007 was not easy. Rain removed some pollen from the grapes flowers to cut down early on yields. then more rain brought mildew and odium problems so vineyards had to be helped with sulfur. Then augus...

So far the forecast for the next 10 day is only rain for Sunday or Monday depending on the region you'll be in the Douro. The weather will flirt with 30 celcius and go down around 25 after the rain. It is a bit odd that the harvest is later this year, last year it was earlier... its hard to plan a t...

Luc wrote:

Frederick Blais wrote:Luc what peanut butter jar should I bring in Portugal as a gift ?

Do they eat PB in Portugal ?

I don't know... I thought you could bring light to this... and recommend me "the best" peanut butter to bring them