Description
Terroir
Located near Pinhão, on the right bank of the Douro, Quinta da Boavista has a spectacular view over the river. It is one of the most iconic properties in the demarcated region known, not only for its historical connection to the Baron of Forrester, but also for its 36 hectares of high quality vineyards.
The Donzelinho Tinto plot extends across terraces halfway up the slope with sun exposure to the East, enjoying unique conditions for its development.
Caste
100% Donzelinho Red
Every year the oenology team decides to bottle one or two monovarietal wines, with grape varieties that stood out from that year’s Reserva batch. As in 2015 and 2016, in 2017 the choice fell on Donzelinho Red. This variety is one of the classic varieties of the Douro region, referenced since 1531. With small and very compact bunches, with small berries and very thin skin, it gives rise to genuine and irreverent wines with a very gastronomic profile.
Winemaking
At Quinta da Boavista, to ensure the preservation of the variety’s characteristics and total control of the production process, we resort to manual harvesting and hand picking of bunches, followed by destemming and gentle crushing of the berries.
As fermentation tanks we have traditional granite presses with foot treading, stainless steel fermentation vats and, for small batches, pvc food containers or fermentation in new 500 liter French wood barrels. Each of these types of fermentation gives the wine a particular style. As a winemaking philosophy we have only one: to delicately extract the best characteristics of our grapes.
Monovarietals are the only wines that age in 500 liter barrels. After an aging period, which varies between 15 and 20 months, bottling takes place. All wines are sealed with natural cork. Not being filtered or cold stabilized, they can give rise to a precipitate with age.
The medium intensity cherry color predicts a delicate and elegant wine. The nose confirms the previous predicates, revealing a good presence of red fruit with hints of black pepper, making the whole sober and balanced. In the mouth it demonstrates polished but solid tannins, perpetuated by an explosive freshness.
Ideal to accompany dishes of red meat, game or cheese.
