Doçal
I think this is the first time I’ve set eyes on a four hundred and fifty year old vine, and pretty substantial it is too.
Quinta de Vargellas vineyard regeneration
An almost-breathtaking regeneration project has been undertaken at Quinta de Vargellas in the Upper Douro. In a project they called their ‘new old-vineyard model’, Vargellas embarked on a five-year project to rebuild a section of some of the company’s oldest hillside vineyards.
The greening of the Douro Valley
A decade ago, the Douro vineyards were a brown, bare-earthed environment, where patches of dry, Mediterranean climate-adapted scrubland juxtaposed with bare earth beneath vines. As a result of a growing use of cover crop, the Douro vineyards are greening over, literally and environmentally.
Douro grapes – lessons for climate change?
Portugal’s Douro valley is a complex, extreme, mountainous vineyard region; and it’s hot. Given the region’s long viticultural history, the vines tend to be well adapted to the extreme conditions. Vines are planted at river level, from around 100m above sea level, to above 500m up the slopes. Vineyard aspects cover the full 360°. In wine terms, these guys are at the vanguard of how to deal with a warming world.
Douro unterraced
While researching a feature on hot climate viticulture in the Douro, I got fascinatingly sidetracked by the complexities of terracing systems in the valley of which there are five different models.
