The most eagerly awaited news has arrived for connoisseurs of fine wines from Portugal and around the world. Nine years after an exceptional vintage in the Douro—one that winemaking and time have brought to its fullest potential—the decision has been made. Barca Velha 2015 will hit the market even before summer.
The high standards required for a Barca-Velha release are well known. After all, from 1952 to the present, only 21 vintages have earned the status of the Douro’s finest, bearing the Casa Ferreirinha signature. This winemaking decision is met at Sogrape with a mix of celebration and responsibility. “The announcement of a new Barca-Velha is always a very special moment and a source of great joy. On the one hand, there is the pride of witnessing the birth of one of the most iconic and renowned Portuguese wines, and on the other, the awareness of the care that is essential to write a new chapter in this unparalleled history within the wine industry,” comments Fernando da Cunha Guedes, President of Sogrape.
Grace, character, and persistence are some of the adjectives that winemaker Luís de Sottomayor uses to describe the wine, but it was its impressive aging potential that determined the final verdict on the 2015 Barca-Velha. “2015 was a short and atypical harvest, but very successful in terms of quality, marked by little rain and two heat waves in June and July, which contributed to the production of very complex wines, with good structure and pronounced fruit,” describes the winemaker, who always had “enormous confidence in the potential of this vintage”—a confidence that has now been confirmed.
Declared only in truly exceptional years, Barca-Velha has, since its creation, been made from grapes selected from different elevations in the Upper Douro. Quinta da Leda, with 170 hectares of vineyards, currently provides most of the blend composed of the region’s traditional grape varieties.
Barca-Velha 2015 will be released in June of this year.