Wine Quinta das Brôlhas Grande Escolha Red 2016 75cl

Wine Quinta das Brôlhas Grande Escolha Red 2016 75cl

The Producer:

For around 400 years, this farm was the birthplace of the family that hosts it, and was the terroir of the grapes that grow there. Among the people and wines of the Douro there is a certain nobility and Quinta das Brôlhas maintains itself with invaluable wisdom.

Rare are the properties that remain under the control of the same family for more than four centuries. According to testimonies dating back to 1605, this is what happened to Quinta das Brôlhas, four kilometers from Régua, in the Douro Wine Region.

The farm includes two lots of the same name, one on the left bank and the other on the right bank. The first, in Valdigem, houses the ancestral house and the 18th century chapel. It is there that the joint winemaking of all cultures takes place, in a traditional winery with granite presses, chestnut barrels and stainless steel vats, aligning tradition with modernity.

In the schist soils of small and medium slopes, with southern and western exposure, vineyards grow grafted with the typical varieties of the terroir: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Tinta Francisca, Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão and Sousão for the red; Malvasia Fina, Rabigato, Gouveio, Fernão Pires and Viosinho for the whites.

The restructuring of the vineyards saved around 50 to 120 old vines.

Production was divided between fortified and consumer wines, with oenology ensured by the competent hands of the team responsible for Quinta Vale D. Maria.

In the famous wine guide Vinhos de Portugal, 2016 edition, the renowned critic João Paulo Martins lists four wines that have caught his attention: the white Quinta das Brôlhas 2014, a blend of Malvasia, Gouveio and Viosinho that presents itself “right on the nose, with citrus fruits and some dry vegetable notes… the acidity is lively and gives freshness… the wine has the right profile to be served with meals”; the 2013 red is referred to as “fine in wood notes with ripe fruit, but well composed, all very promising” in a “refined set”.

The Reserva reds stand out. “An aroma composed of time, rounded at the edges”, with the fruit “showing a good dialogue with the vegetal notes”. It is a wine that demonstrates “good gastronomic sense” and will be “a success at the table”. The Reserva 2013, writes João Paulo Martins, is a wine “full of character and tenacity… Very well organized in the mouth”, with an “elegant” profile, intended to be stored.
In recent years, Quinta das Brôlhas wines have been accumulating awards in national and international competitions: a Silver Medal at Expovinis, two Gold Medals from the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto  and a Silver Medal at the Concours Mondiale de Bruxelles 2012.

Among the steep terraces that dignify this landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Estate welcomes wine tourism lovers in rehabilitated buildings.

For those who stay in Brôlhas, it can be easy to forget the stress of everyday life. But it is the wine itself that awakens us to it, to its blessings and its pleasures. Best of Wine Tourism 2006 awarded to Quinta das Brôlhas by the network of great vineyards in the world.