Vintage Report

Quinta da Gricha 1999 Vintage - Churchill's First Single Quinta

We started the Vintage on 20th September. The hot weather had finally broken on 18th September with a heavy thunderstorm. Fermentation temperatures remained ideally cool throughout the Vintage.

All our port was foot trodden in lagares and withstood a great deal of work ensuring good extraction of colour and tannins. We delayed picking the old vineyards until 26th September by which time the grapes on the old vines had reached ideal maturation.

We filled only one lagar (Lagar No 6) with grapes from the old vineyards. The initial baumé was 13.5 degrees and the fermentation process took 4 days with the lagar being run off on 1st October. The fermentation temperature never exceeded 24 degrees C.

SELECTION AND TASTING APPRECIATION

Although all the Port made at Gricha was of a very high quality we decided to select only the wine from the old vineyards for the Quinta da Gricha 1999 Vintage Port. The Port was stored in an oak tonel at Quinta da Gricha until March 2000 when it was then brought down to our cool bodegas at Vila Nova da Gaia.

Quinta da Gricha 1999 is Churchill's first home-grown Single Quinta Vintage Port. It is a wine with an individual and striking character. The purple colour is vibrant and intense. The nose is high tone and reminiscent of concentrated blackberries. The taste is fine and well balanced with mouth puckering tannins on the finish. It is a combination of finesse and power.

John L Graham
5th June 2001