ThePortForum.com

If Malvedos wasn’t the only Quinta where the picking of the best lots took place before the rain, there might be some decent Port still produced by those who got the right grapes in at the right time. Perhaps a bit like 2010?

If Malvedos wasn’t the only Quinta where the picking of the best lots took place before the rain, there might be some decent Port still produced by those who got the right grapes in at the right time. Perhaps a bit like 2010?

One hopes so, but by their own admission, Malvedos brought in their best grapes early to beat the weather.

I still hold out hope that some excellent port will be made this year, but the chances of a declarable year seem to be fading.

From what I hear, I agree with Tom. Some people appear to have harvested some grapes in excellent condition and will be able to use those to make port of excellent quality. However, there are still quite a few grapes to be harvested. Where these grapes are in the parts of the Douro which have so far avoided the rain, the quality is likely to be superb.

Where the rain has fallen in significant quantities, there is likely to be a small quantity of really good port.

This sounds like it's going to be a vintage to be bought by buyers who know what they are after - some superb quality available in small quantities, perhaps as single quinta wines at single quinta prices.

It will be interesting to see what happens in 18 months.

From the front lines....no rain at Malvedos Thursday or Friday (as of late morning). The Douro superior is doing quite well with very little to no rain. The biaxo and cima areas are getting lots more rain and not in a good way. This year it seems to be all about location. Douro superior and you should be ok if weather holds. The west areas are not doing so well (generally speaking).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What Alex and Andy have said. Miguel Potes is doing a great job on the Malvedos Blog and in the latest post again makes the point about micro climates and the incredible differences in conditions across quite small distances - close to 1100 mm per year in Vila Real, half that at Malvedos 15 miles away.

We've had some let up here on the coast at last - though I have 15 cm of rain standing in an empty flowerpot outside - filled in the past week, it was empty last weekend. But blazing sunshine this afternoon, thank heavens. It's equinox today or tomorrow, and the outlook continues unsettled for a few more days but is forecast to settle down to clear sunshine again by the middle of next week.

Don't forget most promising vintage years are characterised by good Touriga Franca - which ripens late - so there is still time for that to come true. I wouldn't give up hope yet.

The Adorigo weather station is reporting 18mm of rain yesterday whilst Pinhao registered just half a mm.

Pinhao hasn't had a wholly dry day for over a week now although it's mostly been very light; however the forecast gives little cause for optimism.

I suspect the growers will be going all-out to get the harvest in now..

I crossed the Spain-Portugal border yesterday and spent the whole day cycling south through Braganca, Mirandela and Vila Flor in horrible rain storms, though there looked like there may be sunshine to the South. Am posting this from Pocinho, where there has definitely been substantial rain overnight and this morning (though sunny now)

The Advid site is reporting more consistant rainfall across the region for yesterday - typically half an inch across the board. Showery weather is also forecast for the next two days

This is very sad for the growers. Problems at fruit set meant a small crop was inevitable, but until a fortnight ago there was every reason to hope for the compensation of excellent quality.

There will doubtless be some good port from this vintage from the early pickings, but it now looks inevitable that a sizeable percentage of the crop will be seriously compromised.

Mixed news. Much rain at Vesuvio. Unpicked Touriga Franca -- tight bunched grapes -- might well struggle.

But we tasted some lots, Vesuvio, from 22 Sept so before the rain, of different blends of Touriga Nacional, Alicante Bouchet, and Souzão. Very lovely, and perfumed in a manner reminiscent of 2007. So there will be some good Ports in 2014, even if of small volume.

jdaw1 wrote:Mixed news. Much rain at Vesuvio. Unpicked Touriga Franca -- tight bunched grapes -- might well struggle.

But we tasted some lots, Vesuvio, from 22 Sept so before the rain, of different blends of Touriga Nacional, Alicante Bouchet, and Souzão. Very lovely, and perfumed in a manner reminiscent of 2007. So there will be some good Ports in 2014, even if of small volume.

You mean - you're in Portugal?? But what a coincidence, I heard Derek's there too! You really should look him up!

All of Advids sites saw more rain yesterday - in the last 48 hrs Vilarica has seen another 20mm of rain on top of the soaking it got a week ago.

But.. the forecast for the next six days is much better, with no rain and clear skies in prospect.

The question is - how much damage has been done? Are the unpicked grapes splitting and rotting, or are the growers able to leave them on the vines for a few more days, to re-concentrate their juice?

Report from the front line:

There was lots of rain at the weekend and beginning of this week but none since Tuesday afternoon. The grapes picked before the rain are generally reported as being superb but on average it seems most producers only picked about one third before the weather broke. All fruit seems to have been fully mature when the rain fell so anything still on the vine now is at severe risk of rot and/or dilution.

At best I think this vintage will produce some very good SQVP in small quantity.

DRT wrote:There was lots of rain at the weekend and beginning of this week but none since Tuesday afternoon. The grapes picked before the rain are generally reported as being superb but on average it seems most producers only picked about one third before the weather broke. All fruit seems to have been fully mature when the rain fell so anything still on the vine now is at severe risk of rot and/or dilution.

At best I think this vintage will produce some very good SQVP in small quantity.

I suppose, if it’s any consolation, that whilst small-quantity SQVP-only years aren’t particularly good for the industry they tend to be better for the drinkers...

I suppose, if it’s any consolation, that whilst small-quantity SQVP-only years aren’t particularly good for the industry they tend to be better for the drinkers...

You mean that after a run of mostly pretty decent years, the producers will have plenty of stock to supply the French market with the quality they expect?

That’s a fair point. I dare say it’s hard for them to get enough grapes suitable for basic tawny production...

jdaw1 wrote:We don’t yet have much information about the quality of the 2014 Douro grapes, but we have a hint of a little news.

Reuters, in an article entitled [url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/04/us-usa-weather-idUSBREA000JC20140104]U.S. Midwest, Northeast brace for Arctic blast, record lows[/url], wrote:Many parts of the U.S. Midwest braced for a blast of Arctic air this weekend that could bring some of the coldest temperatures in two decades before advancing to the Northeast, where residents are still digging out from a deadly snowstorm.

Starting Sunday, the deep freeze will be felt in the northern U.S. plains, including North and South Dakota, and through the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

It will be some of the coldest weather to grip the region in two decades, with blizzard conditions expected in the Central Plains and Great Lakes regions, forecasters said.

"The last really big Arctic outbreak was 1994, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. "Outbreaks like this don't occur everyday. They aren't unheard of, but they are unusual."

1994, eh?

Perhaps it would be better not to count chickens before they are conceived.

OK, that forecast aspiration was optimistic. It was good until the harvest, and then it went wrong. As one of the winemakers told us, it was a harvest of three halves: before the rain; before the big rain; and the big rain.

I was in the Douro for one week during this "funky" harvest. I talked to many winemakers, like Dirk Niepoort, David Guimaraens or Alzira Carvalho. I didn´t get that anyone was deeply depressed , fortunately the majority of good grapes was picked before the rain, maybe it won´t be a general declared year, but some very good stuff should be in the cellars.
I have summarized my impressions on my blog:

http://www.passion-port.de/berichte.php ... richtid=89

christopherpfaff wrote:I was in the Douro for one week during this "funky" harvest. I talked to many winemakers, like Dirk Niepoort, David Guimaraens or Alzira Carvalho. I didn´t get that anyone was deeply depressed , fortunately the majority of good grapes was picked before the rain, maybe it won´t be a general declared year, but some very good stuff should be in the cellars.
I have summarized my impressions on my blog:

http://www.passion-port.de/berichte.php ... richtid=89

It really depended on where one's grapes were at. Farther west was bad as the rain started there first, and more heavily. Farther east in the Douro Superior less rain and it came later. That was until the rain came everywhere for days. A little rain was ok, but when heavy rain fell, then the warm humid temperatures kicked in, disaster started. With that much rain after a couple days the berries started to swell, the thin grape skins cracked open, and rot started to creep in. That resulted in a lot of triage on the receiving lines. As Julian pointed out, it was a harvest broken down before the rain, during the rain, and during a lot of rain.

Andy Velebil wrote:

christopherpfaff wrote:I was in the Douro for one week during this "funky" harvest. I talked to many winemakers, like Dirk Niepoort, David Guimaraens or Alzira Carvalho. I didn´t get that anyone was deeply depressed , fortunately the majority of good grapes was picked before the rain, maybe it won´t be a general declared year, but some very good stuff should be in the cellars.
I have summarized my impressions on my blog:

http://www.passion-port.de/berichte.php ... richtid=89

It really depended on where one's grapes were at. Farther west was bad as the rain started there first, and more heavily. Farther east in the Douro Superior less rain and it came later. That was until the rain came everywhere for days. A little rain was ok, but when heavy rain fell, then the warm humid temperatures kicked in, disaster started. With that much rain after a couple days the berries started to swell, the thin grape skins cracked open, and rot started to creep in. That resulted in a lot of triage on the receiving lines. As Julian pointed out, it was a harvest broken down before the rain, during the rain, and during a lot of rain.

We talked to many people on this year's Port Harvest tour. Andy's summary is about what we heard as well.

Out east some people were basically unaffected by the rain. The best number we heard was 85% harvested before the rain started, and the rest came in before any damage had been done. At the west end, though, the damage was brutal for some. We heard numbers as low as 33% harvested before the rain, and those grapes were harvested early because they knew the rain was coming. In the middle Douro the reports were very mixed.

Grapes harvested before the rain are good and should make some outstanding Port. I think there's at least some chance that Graham's will bottle The Stone Terraces as they deliberately picked those two small parcels a day or two early to avoid the rain. The cask sample we tasted was really interesting, but I thought it showed great promise. Others were also enthusiastic about their own harvests, but the general feeling was resignation about what could have been. There will be some stellar SQVPs, especially from out east, but I would be shocked if there were a general declaration. The damage was too great across too many Quintas.

An excellent comment on the 2014 harvest, The 2014 Douro Harvest: The Year of the Fox, by Paul Symington. I thought it fair and informative — a model of such things.

Paul's comment about the quality of Touriga Nacional gives me even more hope for a 2014 Graham's Stone Terraces, as those two vineyards are ~90% TN (according to Dominic).

jdaw1 wrote:An excellent comment on the 2014 harvest, The 2014 Douro Harvest: The Year of the Fox, by Paul Symington. I thought it fair and informative — a model of such things.

Absolutely.

Glenn E. wrote:Paul's comment about the quality of Touriga Nacional gives me even more hope for a 2014 Graham's Stone Terraces, as those two vineyards are ~90% TN (according to Dominic).

Do you not think it might give a slightly odd impression to produce a super premium vintage port without a regular declaration? The expectation could soon follow that they would put out one every year in the Vesuvio-style.

JacobH wrote:Do you not think it might give a slightly odd impression to produce a super premium vintage port without a regular declaration? The expectation could soon follow that they would put out one every year in the Vesuvio-style.

Nacional can happen in non-Noval years; and Noval can happen in non-Nacional years.

jdaw1 wrote:

JacobH wrote:Do you not think it might give a slightly odd impression to produce a super premium vintage port without a regular declaration? The expectation could soon follow that they would put out one every year in the Vesuvio-style.

Nacional can happen in non-Noval years; and Noval can happen in non-Nacional years.

Exactly. Plus they have already neglected 2012 and presumably 2013, so already not in the Vesuvio style.

Noticed a thing on twitter from Nierpoort; http://www.niepoort-vinhos.com/en/reports/