SUSTAINABLE WINE CHANGING THE FACE OF DOURO
Later this month winemaker David Guimaraens will be in Vancouver as part of the Portuguese wine contingent attending the 40th Vancouver International Wine Festival. The 42-year-old grew up in Oporto but worked in Australia, California and Oregon before graduating from Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia. After gaining additional work experience Down Under, Guimaraens returned to Oporto in 1990 to join the winemaking team at Taylor Fonseca.
It wasn’t long before Guimaraens found himself technical director and head winemaker of the Fladgate Partnership, responsible for the group’s extensive wine inventories and teams at Taylor Fladgate, Fonseca and Croft estates.
There has been plenty of group research and development under David’s watch, leading to new methods of vinification and a subsequent jump in quality among all the wines. But Guimaraens’ most important work may end up being in the vineyards.
Guimaraens works alongside soft-spoken, thoughtful Antonio Magalhaes, who heads up the group’s agriculture. Magalhaes is a world authority on mountain viticulture and with Guimaraens’ vision the pair are developing a sustainable vineyard model that is changing the face of the steep slopes of Douro Valley, ensuring the slopes will be around for many more generations.
At Taylor Fladgate, sustainable viticulture utilizes a variety of techniques and strategies that together shape what they term a “balanced, diversified and sustainable vineyard environment and ecosystem while at the same time guarantees the quality of the wines produced by the vines.”
I recently walked through the modern narrow terraces at Croft, each supporting a single row of vines. Each is engineered precisely using GPS laser-guided bulldozers that can carve out vineyard rows tilted three degrees to horizontal. It’s just enough slope to create a balance between rainwater run-off and its penetration into the soil, thus avoiding topsoil erosion and its inherent environmental damage.
The width of the terrace offers just enough room between the vine and the foot of the bank to allow farm machinery unrestricted access to work the weeds, mechanically eliminating the use of herbicides. Natural plant growth is cut, reducing water loss, maintaining the integrity of the banks and providing a haven for insects that increase the vineyard’s biodiversity. Temporary ground cover, grown off-season to prevent invasive plants from taking hold, dies back naturally before it’s mechanically mowed, adding natural organic matter to the soil. Can you say win-win?
The new terraces provide the opportunity for increased plant density, and a chance to be more precise about the grapevines and rootstock to be replanted. Using the vast knowledge of the evercurious Magalhaes, each replanted vine goes into the ground with the best advantage of thriving naturally and being able to resist drought, disease and vineyard pests, while producing high-quality fruit and restoring the natural beauty of the countryside. It is a monumental feat in mountain viticulture.
There is little doubt that Guimaraens is inspired by his ancestors. The Guimaraens family has been in the port business since the 1820s, when Manuel Pedro Guimaraens founded Fonseca Guimaraens. The family firm merged with Taylor, Fladgate and Yeatman in 1948, and David’s father Bruce Guimaraens took charge of the winemaking and vineyard acquisitions in 1961 until he retired in 1989.
Standing at one of the many ongoing vineyard renovations at Croft Quinta do Roeda, it’s easy to see that Guimaraens is driven to carry on his father’s vision to protect one of the world’s greatest wine treasures, the Douro Valley. It’s a plan that will no doubt involve several future generations.