A perfect harvest, with the conviction that in Soalheiro the year 2020 will be forever associated with resilience, team spirit, consistency and also with a special optimism based on the extraordinary quality of the grapes with which the vineyards of our Pur Terroir have presented us.
FROM BUDBURST TO VÉRAISON
The budburst timimg occurred in the first half of March, more than two weeks before what it is usual in an average year in our region.
This advance in the vine’s vegetative cycle in its initial phase occurred because the winter was less severe, i.e., less cold, than is normal. This has had different consequences in a territory as heterogeneous as ours, integrating valley and mountain areas. In the highest part of our Terroir, namely in our vineyard at 1100 meters of altitude, there was less snow than usual, and in the valley the temperatures were milder.
During the vegetative growth phase, precipitation was abundant, and temperatures were low. This situation ended up delaying the progress of the cycle, causing “véraison”, the onset of ripening of the grapes, to start in the middle of July, i.e. about a week before what happens in a conventional year.
THE MATURATION OF GRAPES
July and early August were characterised by very high temperatures during the day and no rainfall. However, in the middle of August there was some light rain that favoured the quality of the grapes and helped the vine to recover its necessary reserves.
The end of August was milder, with temperatures around 30º C during the day and around 16º C at night. A high temperature range was registered, which is one of the differentiating characteristics of the Pur Terroir of Monção and Melgaço, originated by the low influence of the Atlantic winds, due to the protection of the mountains that surround the Alvarinho valley.
Although, at the end of the cycle, the grapes matured more slowly, the Alvarinho harvest in Soalheiro started on the 29th August, about a week before what is customary in this sub-region of the Vinhos Verdes region.
THE HARVEST AND THE WINES
This year, the musts from Alvarinho showed, right from the start, a complexity that immediately delighted us, being this characteristic also allied to a balanced structure. The early harvest highlighted even more a remarkable characteristic of our wines: the aromatic freshness and minerality.
Within this profile, we end up having very varied grapes and musts. The region of Monção and Melgaço is a region of smallholdings and in the Soalheiro Producers Club we collaborate with families of winegrowers who make this territory sustainable – here we find very different plots of land and therefore, with a wealth of flavours and profiles of Alvarinho. The organic vineyards of our property and the sustainable and integrated viticulture practiced by our producers live together in a unique Terroir.
For a long time, we have realized that, in order to be consistent and innovative, and betting essentially on two white grape varieties – Loureiro and Alvarinho – it is essential to work with the various vineyards and the various styles of grapes. Without the heterogeneity of our Terroirs this diversity would not be possible. But to make the most of these grape varieties, namely the remarkable elasticity of Alvarinho, we innovate by computerizing the different variables that influence the differentiation of the grapes: the age of the vines, the altitude, the type of soil, the vine training method, etc.
We believe that knowledge is the greatest source of consistency, differentiation and innovation we can have at our disposal to increase the quality of our wines.
The must palette that the Terroir has provided us with this year is extraordinary and is fundamental for the final blends of our wines, such as the Soalheiro Clássico, to be consistent year after year.
Starting from the diversity of the raw material given to us by the Pur Terroir, all the work in the winery is to highlight this diverse character of the musts through the use of different fermentation temperatures and the use of different types of vessels where these fermentations take place.
This was the first harvest in which we worked in the recently opened Innovation Wine Cellar, symbol of our willingness to welcome innovative ideas into our incubator and to put our team’s ideas into practice: the Aghora, an Alvarinho and Loureiro Georgia style, the Alvorone, an Alvarinho made like an Amarone, the “franc de pied” Alvarinho produced in in spin barrels, stainless steel eggs, etc.
Innovation is for us a way of exploring unknown dimensions of Alvarinho and Loureiro, but it is also something fundamental to maintain tradition, because the consistency, intensity and minerality of the classic Soalheiros depend on an invisible innovation, which resembles the tenuous changes that the vineyards suffer every day. They always look the same because they are alive, because they are always moving.
That is what we expect from our wines in this harvest: that they are equal to themselves and that they are unique as the year that saw them born.