Porto Alves de Sousa Vintage 2011 75cl

Description

Wine production is a family tradition for Domingos Alves de Sousa: his father (Edmundo Alves de Sousa) and grandfather (Domingos Alves de Sousa) had already been Douro winemakers. But Domingos Alves de Sousa initially embraced another career. Having graduated in Civil Engineering, he could not resist the double appeal (of land and blood), and abandoned his activity in 1987 to dedicate himself exclusively to the exploration of the farms that he inherited and others that he later acquired, in which he has been carrying out model land consolidation and restructuring work on the vineyards. The evolution of its winemaking activity has interesting, almost paradigmatic aspects and deserves a little history.

For a long time he was a supplier to the well-known and prestigious companies Casa Ferreirinha and Sociedade dos Vinhos Borges. But the problems that affected the sector in the late 1980s, which resulted in an exaggerated increase in production costs, and in particular the catastrophic 1988 harvest, led him to question the profitability of his farms. And that questioning was the turning point. Like many other Douro winegrowers, affected by the recession in which the Demarcated Region was struggling, he turned to valuing the “leftovers” of Port Wine, that is, the Douro pasture wine, until then traditionally subordinated in relation to the generous wine.

Like many other Douro winegrowers, affected by the recession in which the Demarcated Region was struggling, he turned to valuing the “leftovers” of Port Wine, that is, the Douro pasture wine, until then traditionally subordinated in relation to the generous wine. Of course, this radical change in attitude required more than simple goodwill and the desire to win: it required technical and professional training. He therefore attended courses in viticulture and oenology and, armed with this support, he set to work restructuring his vineyards and, determined to follow his own path as a producer-bottler, he built the winery in his Quinta da Gaivosa where he would from then on vinify the wine. production from the remaining farms.

After carrying out some experiments with different grape varieties, he selected those that proved to be most capable of producing the best Douro Denomination of Origin wines, and with them he produced and launched on the market, in mid-1992, what would be his first wine: Quinta do Vale da Raposa white 1991, which immediately captivated connoisseurs and deserved the best references. It was the beginning of a journey full of successes that has continued to this day, and that we will certainly still hear about tomorrow.