>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.