>100 Years old vines

Impressive how vines survive generations. One of our wines is result from the vinification of grapes grown in a plot, surrounded by 3 floors buildings, in Padilha, Almeirim - Tejo region (formerly known as Ribatejo region).

This vineyard cacthed our eyes instantly! Cincinato da Costa wrote in 1900 (et al Portugal Vinicola) that the best sites for Fernão Pires are soils in the transition from "Campo" to "Charneca" where it is found very deep soils. When the surrounding buildings where elevated there were found vine roots at 7 meters. It seems we had found the perfect site for this variety.

2008 vintage is our first wine from this plot. We vinified from this vineyard 5 barrels. The alcoholic fermentation was done in french oak barrels (3rd use) and it aged for 12 months there. This Friday we bottled it.

This sites and vineyards have so much to teach and we are willing to learn. The harvest of the 2009 was on the 11th of August. 13 days earlier than than last year. The fresh 2009 Summer in Portugal helped the vines have a steady maturation. The Tejo region can reach at this time of year temperatures over 40ºC. Without these hot temperatures the vines never stop maturation causing one of the most balanced growning seasons at the Tejo Valley.

Also impressive are the huge troncs of these plants and their height reaching 2 meters without any trelessing system.

Lifting grapes

Time to lift the grapes from the sand! This is maybe the most important practice at Colares vineyards. Today our producer at Fontanelas - Colares - decided it was time to lift the bunches from the sand.

The grapes should be lifted after they are big enough to mature and before they begin to get Botrytis. These vineyards are 900m from the Atlantic coast and the wind coming from the North is cold enough to stop the bunch maturation. Not even the palisades of cane are sufficient to protect the grapes from the cold so they must stay lying on the ground to pick its heat. When the bunches are at risk because of the humidity brought by frequent morning fogs, they must be lifted.

All this makes this wine region unique. But the bunches are not safe yet. As the acidity drops and the sugar inside the berries rise, these grapes get the attention of the surrounding Fauna. The Common Blackbird is the most easily seen. In some vineyards the yields can drop 20-30% only because of these attacks.

Nothing in Colares is easy, not even the wines...

Colares - Portugal

Colares in Portugal is a micro-region of wines that I have heard more than once being said: "It's the wine that everybody talks and nobody tastes". Well I can agree... This is really one of the smallest wine regions in the world. If you look at the Arenae vineyards they are really rare and extinguishing.

This is why Casca Wines decided to start vinification on this premises. Also, because we are both from nearby town of Cascais. Nowadays there are very few producers of wine in Colares. Only 3 if I'm not mistaken, do transform grapes into wine and we are one of them.

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