Cortes Do Tua
Douro Valley White 2022

‘Cortes’ is the Portuguese translation of the word ‘blends’, explaining the winery name with it’s unique combination of indigenous grape varietals grown on the slopes of the Tua River.  Winemakers and partners in life, Duarte da Costa and Ana de Almeida have been cultivating 15 hectares of land in the Douro Superior for the past decade.  Both Duarte and Ana have international winemaking experience and have bonded over their passion for bringing their modern winemaking approaches back to their traditional region of the Douro.

The vines they work with are over 30 years old, located on steep slopes at high elevation (ranging from 300-700m) with poor soils mostly made of granite and schist.  These soils create an unique microclimate on these small plots of land by providing good drainage, preventing erosion on the steep slopes, and absorbing energy from the hot sun that it later insulates the vines with when temperatures start to decrease outside.  With all of these positive factors in the vineyard, Ana and Duarte are able to create full bodied, yet beautifully elegant and balanced wines from the Douro Superior.

It can be extremely hot during the harvest season (up to 50ºC!), but the vineyards are dry and generally pest-free.  This unique terroir of high elevation + granitic soils provide complexity and elegance to the finished product.

Vinification notes:

• The indigenous varietals that make up this white blend are planted at elevations between 500 and 700m above sea level.
• All grapes are harvested by hand and hand sorted due to the extreme slopes of the Douro Superior region
• Night picking occurs to avoid hot temperatures during the day (harvesting ENDS each day around 10am!)
• Fermented in stainless steel vats, at low temperatures, for one month
• The wine rests for 6 months in tanks until bottling