Sacred Drop 
Quinta do Vesuvio Estate of Symington Family Estates in Douro, Portugal
Posted on October 6, 2011
It is amazing how wines are made in this region of the world. These are “lagares” where the grapes are destemmed, pumped into these huge lake like things, everyone walks over them, extracting the best must. Then they break the seal or sombrero- hat with a long stick and collect the juice. What a great experience!
Special thanks to Pedro Leal da Costa of Symington Family Estates for showing us around.
Visit to W. J Graham’s of the Symington Family Estates in Oporto
Posted on October 6, 2011
W. J Graham’s is part of the Symington Family Estates and is one of the most well known wineries in the region. Quinta do Vesuvio in an earlier visit is part of W.J. Graham’s and is one of the best known estates used for their port. Â Marisol of W.J. Graham’s shows us around and provides us with some great tastings of Tawny and Ruby port.
The wine harvest has begun in Rioja Alta
Posted on September 26, 2011 1 Comment
In this video, you can see at a winery located in Rioja Alta, how they have started the harvest of the white grapes and doing an analysis of the grape must to check the sugar and therefore the alcohol content of the soon to be wine. The sugar content is measured using a handheld refractometer. When held to the light, you can see the approximate Brix of sugar that will give a predictive amount of Alcohol once this must has undergone fermentation. This is also judged and monitored by the Consejo Regulador in order to qualify each and every batch that comes into the winery. They are there measuring the amount of grapes in kilos per hectare and then qualifying it based on the Brix level.
The grapes that mature fastest tend to be the white grapes and therefore, the harvest generally begins with the white grapes and within a few days, the red grapes depending on their maturity and location will be picked next.
These grapes will be pressed first, the first pressing, a light pressing that will release the first juice will be set aside to be made into a higher quality wine and the second pressing will be used for the the next best wine. This is common practice in most all wineries.
