2008 is a Barca Velha year
When it comes to making great wines, mastering viticulture naturally marries with the art of winemaking. However, a Barca Velha demands an extra dimension in the decision making process: time. Eight years after an outstanding harvest at Quinta da Leda, winemaker Luís Sottomayor believes now is the right time to announce the release of the 18th Barca Velha.
Quinta da Leda Douro
This news release about one of Portugal’s most iconic wines was awaited with eager anticipated. Bets on when Casa Ferreirinhas’s next top of the range wine would be released speculated that it may to come from the cool 2008 harvest. But it is only with the passage of time that it is possible to truly assess and realise the potential a wine suggests at harvest. “Great wines are revealed at birth, but superior ones, those that become the stuff of legend and endure the longest have to prove their place in a cellar and pass the test of time”, comments winemaker Luís Sottomayor. “Such is the case for Barca Velha.
Pioneering and innovative
Pioneering and innovative, Barca Velha has, since 1952, been the undisputed symbol of the highest quality Douro wines have to offer. Classic, intense, complex, elegant and rich, these adjectives are inadequate to describe all 18 vintages of Barca Velha that stretch over the last 64 years. Only declared in truly exceptional years, Barca Velha has, since its creation, been made of the grapes selected from vineyards at different altitudes of Douro Superior. Today, Quinta da Leda, with its 160 hectares planted as vineyard is the source of most of the wines from the region’s traditional grape varieties that are meticulously blended to produce a Barca Velha wine.
Luis Sottomayor, Winemaker
Casa Ferreirinha Barca Velha 2008 will be released in October 2016 with around 18.000 bottles available in time to celebrate Christmas!
From: Sogrape Vinhos