All of our wines are bought to you by engineless Cargo Ships therefore our transport is carbon negative, making our wines as good as local.
Grapes
Grape varietal: Jaen (70%), Touriga Nacional (30%)
Vine age: 3 years
Soil composition: Quinta da Boavista beyond the typical Dão old granitic soils, has also plots with even older origin due to marine sediments, from 500 million years ago, which originated shale clayey rocks soils, which result wines with such a peculiar minerality character. Besides that, clay soils allow longer cycles with slower ripeness resulting in deeper and more intense wines.
Vineyard: 5,9 hectares where the grape varieties are grown
Direction of sun exposure: South
Altitude: 550m
Yield: 7 ton per hectare
Profile
Viniculture
Vine training: Mixed system between simple cordon and guyot, which is used to renew the plant every 3 years. Green harvesting & Crop thinning
Viticulture practices: No-till, grass cover cropping is practiced and although the vineyards are not certified organic, they are farmed under organic and sustainable practices. Organic practices are used in vineyard such as use of copper and sulphur; flowers and herbs such as chamomile act as fungus repellent and other flower's pollen protect our vines in wet springs.
Applications: Without use of herbicides, pesticides, or any other applications
Biodiversity and sustainability: The vineyard's floor is covered with autochthonous flowers such as chamomile (Matricaria recutita), clover, serradella and also some different types of grasses. At end of each row there are autochthonous lavenders (Lavandula stoechas) which act as natural defense for vines against fungi and any other disease. The vines are surrounded by oaks (Quercus robur and Quercus pyrenaica), pines (Pinus pinaster) and eucalyptus. We can find lots of different birds, bees, ladybirds and on the soil ants and lots of soil earthworms.
Wine Making
Given the winery is covered in photovoltaic cells; making Quinta da Boavista a net exporter of electricity we could promote our wines as carbon neutral.
Harvest date: Normally at first week of September or latter, at second.
Harvest methods: Manual harvest to boxes of 15kg. Red Rufia is a co-fermentation wine, so the three different grape varieties are harvested in the same day and fermented together.
Sorting: vineyard sorting and manual triage in sorting table
De-stemming by hand: bunches pass through the de-stemmer Total time on skins: 4 days on skins
Yeasts: Wild Native Yeasts with spontaneous fermentation
Fermentation starting: Spontaneous fermentation starting in 1 day
Length of time of fermentation: between 8 to 10 days, until it is completely dry Temperature-control: No Temperature-controlled fermentation Time on lees: Long lees contact Stage of 6 months with primary lees
Stirring of lees: No
Malolactic fermentation: Yes (spontaneous)
More about Joao
João will tell you all he needs to make wine is grapes, water to clean his equipment and a touch of sulfur at bottling. He rarely uses products in the vineyard, and when he does he only uses topical organic treatments. In today’s world, this is about as minimal as it gets. João isn’t following a natural wine trend. This is how he and his father have always done it. His wine is proof that a deliciously powerful wine can be naturally made, and this 2006 is a perfect example of the kind of wine João makes.