Harvest

With every vineyard surrounding the Quinta, we follow maturation closely — tasting and analysing the grapes, and moving quickly when they are ripe. Each parcel is picked by hand and transported to our vinification centre in small 20 kg cases, where the fruit is hand-sorted, de-stemmed and moved into our small, epoxy-lined granite lagares — the Douro’s traditional treading tanks.

Lagares

Over the years we have gently modified Quinta do Tedo’s 18th-century foundations to vinify treasured vineyards separately — or several small ones together — according to ripeness. We split the original two large granite lagares into four smaller ones, under which we laid cold-water pipes, allowing pre-fermentation maceration and slower fermentation to draw a wider range of flavours, aromas, colours and tannins from the grapes.

We are lucky to still have a team — and willing family, friends and visitors — to tread the grapes by foot in our lagares, two to three hours a day for three to four days, with music, a festive mood and, of course, a glass of Porto in hand. We firmly believe this is essential to the quality of our Portos: the supple, slightly warm human foot extracts more, and more delicately — above all the age-worthy tannins around the seeds, which if crushed would release harsh, green tannins.

Fortification

Midway through fermentation — with careful analysis, tasting and an eye on each lagar’s destiny (Vintage, LBV, Tawny or Ruby, depending on the year, the vineyard and the fruit) — we open a wide, filter-lined hole in the corner of each lagar to release the partially fermented juice by gravity into epoxy-lined concrete vats below, where it settles naturally over winter before moving in spring to large neutral oak foudres or small horizontal puncheons and barrels, according to each style. Any remaining juice is pressed from the skins and seeds, and the press remains go to the nearby distillery to make aguardente.

Porto is a fortified wine: fermentation is stopped partway by adding that neutral grape spirit, aguardente. The natural sweetness this preserves balances the reinforced alcohol, which in turn protects the wine as it ages — and that is what makes Porto, Porto.

Each year we produce 35–40,000 bottles of Porto at Quinta do Tedo, across 11 styles. The differences between them — blended Rubies and Tawnies; single-harvest Rosés, LBVs, Vintages and Colheitas — come down to how each is aged (in what vessel, and for how long) and whether it is blended at all.