Rush on our wines
Since January 2010 we have been working with a new wine distributor, Mister Wine, in the Algarve and Lisbon area. Since then our wines have been available in all 'Michelin Star' restaurants in the Algarve as well as other well known restaurants. Due to the success of our art exhibitions with the public we have found access to most of the big hypermarkets in the Algarve and gradually also in Lisbon, like in 'El Corte Inglês'. This is important to us as we believe that wines should not be limited to restaurants but also for consumption at home in a private atmosphere.
But success is not easy to achieve, we have understood that the quality criteria which we have set requires a much longer maturation period and therefore also higher storage capacities than originally planned. This will requires new construction in and around the winery after this year's harvest.
Well known wine critic Anibal Coutinho included 3 of our wines, Grace Touriga Nacional Red 2008, Grace Vineyard Red 2007, and Primeira Selecção White 2008 into his list of the best 285 wines in Portugal. The (young) Grace Touriga Nacional received 90 of 100 points which granted it a position amongst the best 60-80 wines in Portugal. This wine is still very fresh and will only reach its maturation peak in 2 or 3 years. Nevertheless we advise you not to wait as the sales are going very well.
Once again it is our prime White that has caught the most attention in the wine world. In 2009 it became the first Algarve wine to have ever received a Gold medal from London's 'International Wine Challenge'. Grace Vineyard White 2009, this year's successor of that wine, received a Gold medal from the 'Concours Mondial de Bruxelles'. The recipe for success has not changed, namely quality in the vineyard, careful grape selection and fermentation in open oak barrels. This job is quite labour and cost intensive as the lid of each 225 litre barrel has to be removed and works are done individually and manually during the fermentation period. After the fermentation ended we transferred the wine into clean oak barrels for one month, this short time of post maturation in the barrels gives us the desired micro oxygenation as well as a touch of wood which helps to refine the wine without overloading it.
Last year we found that the 5000 bottles of white wine we had were not sufficient to satisfy the market's demand, which is why after a while we limited the sale of our White to three bottles per customer. Therefore we decided for the 2009 production to start a second white wine line. The white grapes which we have planted in recent years are not yet mature enough to produce a sufficient amount. Therefore we decided to create the first 'blanc de noir' (white wine made from red wine grapes) in the Algarve using the variety 'Castelão'. There are only two known 'blanc de noir' in Portugal. Of the eleven thousand bottles released in March three thousand have already been sold. Export into the white wine world of Germany will start in the coming weeks after we received a lot of attention at 'Prowein' in Germany (March).
Our 2007 and 2008 rosé wines sold well but did not receive extraordinary attention, but this may change as we have been told by a nearby 5 star hotel that they consider this year's Rosé one of the best in Portugal. They intend to introduce it as THE 2010 summer wine. So far it is only an intention but this would be a big success if it would actually take place.
Most of our Reds are still resting in either barrels or in bottles awaiting their release once we believe they have reached their proper stage of maturation, such is the case of most of our 2008 Reds and all of the 2009 Reds, including our 'Marquês dos Vales Primeira Selecção 2008' (which is our 'easy drinking red'). The latter wine will not be released earlier than autumn 2010 to ensure the best possible quality.
Grace Vineyard red 2007 is approaching its top form. In the 'International Wine and Spirit Competition' in London it received this week a Silver medal for 'best in class'.
I have kept the best for last. From our 2008 'Touriga Nacional' grapes we produced a varietal and took already a chance within it's first year by participating in autumn 2009 in the first Touriga Nacional competition of Portugal. It is noteworthy that we had the only participating 2008 wine and we received a commendation nevertheless.
Medals and awards
3 years, 11 wines and 22 international awards in the last twelve months!
As mentioned in our introduction e-mail we had dedicated one wall in our reception area for wine medals and awards. Soon we will need another wall as we have been granted in the last month alone 16 medals in international wine (blind) tastings in London, Brussels and Estoril. We have to admit that we are proud but that we are also rather surprised. Never in our wildest dreams had we expected that the recognition of our work would be so fast and so intense. But we have no complaints!
If you would like to see a list of international medals and awards our wines have received please
click here.
Art
In the past we have reported in detail about the touring exhibition 'Dança Dos Ursos' and had decided to slow down to give us and the bears some rest. But we have underestimated the interest caused by last year's events. In recent weeks we have been receiving more and more offers and requests for further exhibitions. Our exhibition in Faro's 'Forum Algarve' was very successful as it has created interest from marketing teams of other Portuguese shopping centres. Currently we are working on a cost neutral strategy to carry through exhibitions in those shopping centres. Since March we have already exhibited our sculptures in seven different locations with many more planned in the near future, such as the 'International Algarve Fair' in the beginning of June, Cascais in July and in August also Lagoa and Albufeira. This is why only about 45 sculptures, of the 64 bears and 50 other pieces, can be found at Quinta dos Vales at any specific time. The others are spread in different exhibitions over the Algarve. As previously mentioned we are facing logistic challenges and we might have to increase our workforce in this area.
In the future Quinta dos Vales will not be the only place to find permanent exhibitions. We have made agreements with the Benamor golf course in Tavira for a large permanent exhibition. From June onwards we will also have a permanent exhibition of 3 selected sculptures at 'Pavilhão do Arade' in Parchal. Last but not least, opening at 9:30am on June 26th our new shop 'Artes Barricas' and sculpture park in Porches will have both large and small sculptures on exhibition and sale. Constructions are currently underway and we will introduce innovative garden design and a new collection of sculptures on an open area of more than 500 square meters right next to the new roundabout on the EN125. The open exhibition area is reserved for our larger fibreglass and stone sculptures whereas inside the shop we are going to offer small versions of some of our sculptures, ranging between 40 and 150 cm in size. The small art pieces are almost all originals as we do not produce more than 7 of each. They are all hand cast, either in ceramic or bronze.
Documentary DDU
Since October 'Algarve Channel 5' has been active shooting a short film about 'Dança dos Ursos'. As the shootings are taking place in several different locations, and are strongly dependent on weather conditions, the progress is not as quick as expected. The team has been on the project since October and is now reaching the final stage. On June 4th we have planned the final gathering of all the artists which should allow the completion of the movie by end of June. The original intent was to participate in international film festivals during spring 2010 but due to the delay we might have to postpone this to 2011. First discussions have been held with Portuguese television where interest has been shown but we are awaiting final approval until after the movie is completed and presented.
Wine tastings including meals
As some of you already know we have worked in cooperation with Catrin George when any of our guests have required a catering service or simply some good food with the wines. The team of QdV does not have the resources to offer these services but as we have received many requests from visitors we have decided to cooperate with Catrin George more often. Starting in June she will offer on Wednesday evenings a 3 or 5 course menu matched with 3 or 5 of our wines. For details please
click here. Obviously this offer is not limited to Wednesdays, if you have a group of at least 8 people Catrin and my team will be willing to arrange a nice dinner, lunch or any type of gathering (up to 250 people).
Vineyards
We had planned for 2010 to once again to re-graft and replant many of the wine plants. As with many other wine farms in Portugal we could not realise this in time as the heavy rainfalls did not allow us to perform the final preparation works which required heavy machinery in the wine fields. While we would have been able to start this process in the middle of April we decided against it not to risk harming, in the long term, the quality of the new plants and decided to postpone it to autumn 2010. That is why we could only re-grafted 1,21 hectares of Castelão to Petit Verdot and 0,55 hectares of Castelão to Antão Vaz.
In late spring QdV acquired a wine farm in the western part of the Alentejo, close to Grândola. With slightly more than 30 hectares of land there are close to 10 hectares which are currently producing wine. Since then we planted 2,5 hectares of new wine with the varieties Touriga Nacional and Marcelan. The final goal is a marriage between these two varieties which showed a very interesting character in blending tests.
In a later stage we will decide if, and in how far, cooperation between QdV Algarve and QdV Alentejo is possible.
Cultural activities
During the summer we are likely to host several noteworthy events. We, the team, do not have the capacity to do this on our own but we have been approached by several potential partners to make use of the character and the specific settings of QDV for diverse events and activities. We will keep you informed.
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