2022 Harvest Report
The 2022 wine year will have been one of the most challenging in recent years... we had a hot and dry wine cycle, with heat waves since spring. To make the year even more difficult, the rains began in the second week of September, which were aggravated in the third week by Storm Danielle. The weather improved in the fourth week of September, but remained uncertain, humid, and cooler. This entire end of the ripening season, so intense and meteorologically varied, constantly tested us, particularly our decision-making process... Should we wait or move forward, cut now or trust in the rigidity of the skins and harvest later!? What is certain is that the rain allowed the ripening of the grapes that were still in the field to be balanced - Tinta Roriz, Syrah,
Baga and Touriga Nacional.
Our harvest began on August 30th, in the Póvoa das Quartas vineyard, in the Alva sub-region. We picked the whites that were balanced, with good acidity and a potential alcohol content of around 12%. We started our harvest, with the fresh acidity balance. From that day onwards we picked more whites. On September 1st, we picked part of our Jaen from Girabolhos and Vila Nova de Tazem (Serra da Estrela sub-region), once again.
looking for freshness and red fruit in this variety as opposed to greater ripeness. Then we had our first break in the harvest. We decided to wait a little longer for the remaining whites from our Girabolhos vineyard, to obtain a fuller must, with stone fruit. A few days later we harvested the remaining Jaen, a little riper than the first, to build the base for a fuller, more structured wine. Fearing the predicted storm, we harvested our beloved old Girabolhos vineyard on a hot Saturday (September 10th). In a break before the first “flood” of storm Danielle, we dry-harvested, on the morning of September 12th, an impeccably ripe and healthy Encruzado.
The rainy weather, which lasted for about 5 to 6 days in mid-September, and the need to wait for sunny days, made us wait (tensely and attentively) for more than 10 days. We returned to the field frequently, to check the condition of the skins, the grapes, and the absence of diseases and rot. Everything remained intact and firm until we resumed harvesting the grapes on September 21st, when we calmly started harvesting our family's foreign grape – Syrah. Then we continued with the Touriga Nacional, our beloved Baga, having finished the harvest on September 27th with a heroic Tinta Roriz, impeccably intact, healthy and beautiful! We all know that “until the baskets are washed, it's harvest time”, so we finished harvesting the grapes, but we had plenty of work to do in the winery. Fermenting musts, new wines, racking and washing, barrels, top-ups and jars... All of the above is part of our daily routine after the harvest, celebrated with a family lunch. We toast and eat, as a family, with the people who allowed us to harvest the grapes at the irregular pace that the grapes and the weather demanded. Without a huge group of different teams, with synchronicity, patience and commitment, we would not have been able to harvest such healthy grapes so well. A huge thank you to everyone and to so many.
At No Rules Wines, we are not farmers on a day-to-day basis. We are a diverse, multifaceted team that works in different geographies, from the most remote to the most cosmopolitan! However, we all have a history linked to rural life and the countryside. I am certain that all the empiricism that I saw my grandparents apply, in their agricultural decisions that took into account the uncertainty of the climate and the memory of years of observation, makes a difference, and has made a difference, in this agricultural season, as in past agricultural seasons. Deciding whether to do it now, or wait... even if patience is running out and adrenaline demands action. To this “waterside” empiricism of the past that I have been slowly absorbing, we have added science, respect for the grape, and the care to keep what is beautiful beautiful. The next few years will be different, better or worse... I don't know! This was a difficult year, but we did beautiful things, wait a little while to taste them.