As mentioned in my previous blog post, the main reason to visit the Douro Valley is for its wines. The vineyards in Douro have all been given the name ‘Quinta’ which would mean little farmhouse in Portuguese. You can compare it with the French using “Chateau”, only the Portuguese are more modest and therefore use a more modest name 😉 . The first vineyard I want to introduce to you is a newer vineyard from the Douro valley, Quinta do Popa. I know it might not immediately sound familiar, but after reading my blogpost that’ll change 🙂

After a quite steep climb towards Quinta do Popa (you have incredible views from up here) you get a welcome like you wouldn’t believe, they welcomed us like they would welcome family in their home. A very nice feeling (really)! Normally we were here to meet Stéphane Ferriera (owner), but he got hold of some Worldcup tickets for Brazil 🙂 I can imagine for a football fan this is like finding the holy grail so unfortunately he wasn’t able to meet us… but if it weren’t’ for this we would have never met the very charming Leila +now I have the perfect excuse to come back to Quinta do Popa.

Quinta do Pôpa was bought by José Ferreira in 2003 as tribute to his father and to build up his father’s (Francisco Ferreira aka Pôpa) long life dream of one day owning his own Quinta. Pôpa actually refers to the crested hair like Elvis used to have and to a particular type of bird. The reason his father was given the nickname Pôpa was because after a whole day of hard work on the fields he would very dirty except for his hear, his hair was always in the perfect condition 🙂 talking about a proud man.

The reason why I wanted to visit this vineyard was first of all because I like wines and am always keen on trying something new… but also because no one less then Luis Pato believed so much in this project he decided to help Stéphane and Vanessa (José’s children who are the faces of the vineyard and hardworking team behind José) with realizing their dream. It made me very curious on knowing more about this dream.

On their 30ha estate only on 14ha they have mostly old vines (some even up to 80 years old) where they mostly grow grapes to make red wine (although they do have a white as well). With Tinta Amarela (for dark coloring and full body flavour), Tinto Cão (will add finesse and complexity to the wine, is also rare grape kind), Touriga Franca (very perfumed), Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo)and Touriga Nacional (gives structure and body to wine, with high tannins and concentrated flavours of black fruit ) as their mean grape varieties. On the other remaining 16ha. they have olive trees from which they make some nice olive oil.

In their wines they have 4 distinctions or I might even say levels.

•  Contos da Terra: these are to me everybody’s friend easy to drink wines for when you are sitting outside or in front of TV. and feel like having a glass of wine
• Pôpa: more complex wines than the Contos wines and my preferred type of wines (bit stronger and full bodied). Here you have a choice between TR (Tinta Roriz), TN (Touriga Nacional) or VV (old vines and my personal favorite and soon part of my wine collection 😉 )
• Pôpa Doce: a sweet wine (not to sweet) perfect for with dessert
• TRePA / PAPO: the perfect marriage between Douro and Barraida wines. The Roriz from Douro (Quinta do Pôpa) and Baga from Barraida (Luis Pato). Also a very interesting (must try) wine and very soon also another addition to my collection 🙂

I know I indicated which ones were my favorites, but this is of course a personal choice and it also depends on which occasion you are drinking it (and if there is no, we’ll find an occasion 😉 ). Whenever I buy wines, I always prefer buying from vineyards I know and I have visited and have seen the sparkle in the eyes of the winemakers (which I did also see in Leila’s eyes (I didn’t stare to long, I promise!) and I’m sure José, Vanessa and Stéphane also have) which basically means the wine has been made with so much love, care and respect for the product you can be sure you’ll be having a great glass/ bottle… something that mass production products can and will never have….

 

Quinta do Pôpa gave me one a gift I will cherish a lot. They gave me a little bottle filled with sand from their vineyards… so every time I feel sad or feel like going to the Douro valley, I just poor the sand on the floor, sit in it, serve myself a nice glass of Quita’s VV wine and close my eyes… it will feel like I’m back at Quinta do Pôpa on a summery day! (A holiday feeling right in my living room thanks to them 🙂 ) Thank you for that Leila (And Stéphane, Vanessa, José) and I’m sure we’ll be meeting again very soon!!

One last thing about the winemaking I want to share, in the Douro valley to press the wine (to get the juice out of the grapes) they still have people stumble them like in the old days. FYI this is not for nostalgic or touristic reason they do this, they do this because it still seems the best way to do it…. just FYI 🙂