VINTAGE NOTES

Red wine

Reserve 2003

All information about the various RED vintages

from the Adega do Cantor website

Red 2004

Vida Nova Tinto 2004

The 2004 growing season was characterised by a cooler than average month of August, which allowed the final grape ripening phase to proceed slowly and evenly, resulting in more highly coloured and flavousome fruit than in previous years. Fruit quantity was about normal for the Quinta do Moinho vineyard (about 6 tons per hectare), and was complimented this year with fruit from the younger Quinta do Miradouro vineyard. Picking started on the 25th August, about the same time as the previous 2003 harvest. The weather was fine throughout the 2 weeks of harvest and fruit quality was excellent, healthy grapes with good maturity. The Adega do Cantor winery was in use for its second year and once again performed up to expectations in an intense vintage which tested the capacity of the winery to handle a larger harvest.

The Vida Nova 2004 red, a 57000 litre blend of Aragonez, Shiraz, Trincadeira and Alicante Bouschet was put together in late February and bottled in May.

Technical Specifications:

Country of Origin: Portugal

Region: Lagoa, Algarve.

Appelation: Vinho Regional Algarvio.

Wine Style: Red table wine.

Varietal Constituents: 70% Syrah. 15% Aragonês. 5% Trincadeira. 5% Mourvedre. 5% Alicante Bouschet Bottling and Maturation: 6 months in new French and American oak barrels. Bottled in May 2005.
Harvest: 2004

Vineyard Area: 18Ha

Soil Type: Free draining sandy loam. Red Clays.

Organoleptic characteristics:

Appearance: Deep, dark dense red/ purple colour.

Nose: Dark stone fruit aromas of plums and prunes with complex spice notes of cinnamon and vanillan oak.

Palate: The palate shows good depth ripe fruit with elegance and richness, excellent balance, length and fine supportive tannins which give the wine great structure.

Temperature: For serving - 16ºC

Accompaniment: Light and dark meats, cheeses.

Bottles produced: 75333 bottles.

Wine Analyses:

Alcohol: 14.0 %v/v

Volatile Acidity: 0.48g/l

Total Acidity: 6.3g/l

pH: 3.62

Red 2005

Vida Nova Tinto 2005

The year started with the pruning of the vines in the vineyards – Quinta do Moinho, Quinta do Miradouro and the new one; Vale do Sobreiro. All three vineyards are now established and are starting to produce high quality fruit for the wines. The 2005 growing season was heavily influenced by the drought that occurred during the preceding winter. Bud burst occurred through March and early April and apart from a little rain at flowering the vines had a long, healthy, dry growing season. The lack of ground water meant that we could control the growth of the vines easily through irrigation and allow some controlled water stress. This enabled us to produce a higher quality of fruit. Vintage started on 23 August, was fine and dry and went without a hitch. We kicked off with fruit for a new edition to the range Vida Nova Branco (white), followed by the Rosé fruit and then the Reds. The fruit quality was excellent throughout. We yielded 130 tonnes off all the vineyards and have high hopes that the wines will be the best yet. The Vida Nova 2005 red, a 62,000 litre blend of Aragonez, Shiraz and Alicante Bouschet was put together in April and bottled at the end of May.

Tasting Notes:

Red 2006

Vida Nova Tinto 2006

The weather was kind during the early part of the growing season allowing for even budburst. Some unsettled weather from flowering through to fruit set initially gave cause for concern but this proved unfounded as we had a very good berry set and some lovely bunch formations. Although winter rainfall was about average, coming after a dry year it had more of an effect on the vines than normal giving them more vigour and a tendency to overproduce canopy. This resulted in a lot of canopy management operations to keep the root, shoot and fruit ratio in balance especially on our more established vineyards. Post fruit set and through to early ripening the weather was excellent as usual. An August heat spike retarded some of the ripening and the plants had to be irrigated to keep turgor in the berry, avoid canopy shut down and allow us more hang time to ripen the tannins. Sugars, as usual were excellent at between 12.5 and 13.5 Be at the end of August when we commenced harvest on the Whites and Rosés. Harvest was hot at the start but cooling off through September. A small amount of insignificant rainfall also occurred but did little more than clean the bunches. As we had an (average) wet year coming after the dry one the plants were very productive. The yield was above average on the Rosé blocks; this would also have been the case on all the other blocks had we not done up to 3 passes to remove fruit. 2 passes on white and red grapes, 3 passes on reserve blocks. The wines are looking good, the components are big but even. The Rosé is fruity with less residual sugar than in previous years (approx 10g/l). White is excellent; again with less residual sugar than last year; and alcohol levels on the reds are high but matched by acid, fruit intensity and structure and therefore very well balanced.

Technical Specifications:

Wine Analyses:

Alcohol: 14.6%v/v
Volatile Acidity: 0.8g/l
Total Acidity: 7.0g/l
pH: 3.78
Total So2: 60mg/l

Vida Nova Tinto 2006 is a deep, dark, concentrated red wine with a nose offering a complex array of aromas including black cherry, prune and plum, with subtle notes of cinnamon and vanilla. The palate shows good depth and ripe dark fruit character as well as elegance achieved through finely balanced tannins. An excellent accompaniment to light and dark meats and hard cheeses, the wine has been matured for 6 months prior to bottling in a combination of stainless steel vats and French and American oak barrels

Reserve 2003

Vida Nova Reserva 2003

Following some extreme heat after an otherwise normal growing season, the 2003 harvest started on the 27th of August, much earlier than the 2002 harvest, and more in line with the excellent 2001 harvest. Fruit quantity was down on the large 2002 crop but quality looked promising with healthy grapes and good sugar levels recorded in the vineyard prior to picking. The vintage was historic as the wines were made for the first time on site, in the new Adega do Cantor winery at Quinta do Miradouro. With the fruit in good condition and the winery in first class working order, some 20 new French and American oak barrels were purchased with a view to making a Reserve style. The Reserve is a blend of 85% Shiraz and 15% Àragones . The wine was matured for eight months in 100% new French and American oak barrels and then bottle matured for a further eight months before being released to market in February 2005. The wine is only available for purchase at our cellar door shop or by mail order. Please send an enquiry from our contacts page if you are interested in purchasing this wine.

Reserve 2004

Vida Nova Reserva 2004

Vintage Note:

The 2004 growing season was characterised by a cooler than average month of August, which allowed the final grape ripening phase to proceed slowly and evenly, resulting in more highly coloured and flavousome fruit than in previous years. Fruit quantity was about normal for the Quinta do Moinho vineyard (about 6 tons per hectare), and was complimented this year with fruit from the younger Quinta do Miradouro vineyard. Picking started on the 25th August, about the same time as the previous 2003 harvest. The weather was fine throughout the 2 weeks of harvest and fruit quality was excellent, healthy grapes with good maturity. With the fruit in superb condition and the winery in first class working order, some 20 new French and American oak barrels were purchased with a view to making a Reserve style. Vida Nova Reserva 2004 is a 4000 litre blend of 85% Shiraz and 15% Àragones . The wine was matured for eight months in new oak and then bottle matured for a further nine months before being released to market in March 2006. The wine is only available for purchase at our cellar door shop or by mail order. Please send an enquiry from our contacts page or order online if you are interested in purchasing this wine.