Quinta de Tourais

Portugal

Douro

Cambres

Fernando Coelho

Factor XPTO: Fernando Coelho and his low altitude wines

Fernando Coelho in direct speech:
“Quinta de Tourais is a family owned estate, that has been on my family for four generations, since the 1940s. The estate itself goes back to the times of the Cistercian Order, all the way to the 13th century.
My first harvest as a winemaker was in 1999, and it was the first time Tourais bottled its wine and used its name as a brand. When I began, my approach was quite different, as it was focused on wines with a lot of extraction, giving them more colour and body.
However, as my experience grew in these past 23 years, my concerns have also changed. Now, I focus mainly in the vineyards, where we have the uttermost respect for nature and what it provides. I now tend to intervene the less as I possibly can, both in the vineyards and in the winery, carefully preparing each harvest throughout the whole year.
These choices on how to produce our wines reflect on our lifestyle, shaping our thoughts and beliefs.
With a production of 15’000 bottles annually, we create an average of 14 references every year, allowing us to experiment with different blends, which in turn gives us a lot of learning opportunities and, ultimately, pleasure. This also allows us to use the terroir to its full potential, expanding our concept of a small but unique production.
We define ourselves as producers of low altitude. We are located at only 100m above sea level and that forces us to be extra careful with the maturation of our grapes, always with the goal of intervening the less as possible on the winery.
With this concept in mind, we replanted a parcel of our vineyards with grape varietals that are less usual in Douro, clearly defining the path that we want to follow. Lighter and fresher wines, that still have a lot of intensity, showing that Douro’s terroir is flexible and allows a greater diversity of styles in winemaking
.”

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