Vinho de Potes - Adega José de Sousa | 2016
The house of Zé de Sousa Rosado Fernandes
had its beginnings in the 19th century.
We don't know the exact date,
but we do know that a label was discovered here a few years ago
with the date of 1868,
which at the time was owned by Zé de Sousa Farimel,
who was Zé de Sousa Rosado Fernandes' uncle and grandfather.
The vineyard was planted by Zé de Sousa in 1952 until 1954,
according to the label.
Around 10% of the vineyard is made of white grapes
and 90% of it is made of red grapes.
The white grapes are made of Vaz, Manteúdo and Diagalvos.
The red grapes, through the 1940 harvest,
are Granois, Trincadeira, Aragonese and Moreto.
The vineyard is processed today,
in the first or second week of September.
It starts with the white grapes and then enters the red grapes,
and will be ready three weeks later.
It's a short vineyard.
We have to be careful of the high temperatures
and the low humidity that prevails in this region.
The white grapes were fermented in the old way
and then we put them in a plastic bag during the fermentation.
About 10 or 12 days after the fermentation,
they were pressed and the wine was stored
for about 7 or 8 months in barrels.
According to what is written by António Guiar,
at the end of the 19th century,
the method of ripens was used
and then the fermentation was done in cuts.
The grape enters the cellar,
goes to a cellar where it is slightly pressed,
it is thawed at the ripens table,
30% of the grape juice is added to the pots
and the rest is fermented separately with a little mustard.
This fermentation is, let's say,
the salt and pepper of the enology of that time,
which is to give the structure to the wine.
The control of fermentation that was done in the old days
was in the placement of a very thin film of water
on the outside of the pot,
and so you could get temperatures of about 26 or 27 degrees.
After the fermentation, the wine is removed.
The first 15 or 20 liters come out cloudy
and suddenly the wine is clean, transparent.
These 15 or 20 liters are placed on top of the pot.
This process of emptying the pot can take almost 24 hours.
After removing the masses,
someone has to enter the pot to manually remove the pricles
and the gaskets that have been there since the beginning of the fermentation.
Part of the wine would be aged in chestnut shells, 600 liters.
And the other part went back to the pots,
where a film of olive oil was stored to prevent oxidation.
This aging process lasts for about a year,
after which the batch is made
between the wine that was in the pots,
the wine that was in the chestnut shells
and the wine from the fermentation in the gaskets.
And then the normal aging will take place.