Casa Ferreirinha Callabriga Douro 2023

This wine is deep ruby in colour with an intense and complex nose of ripe strawberry, cherry and cassis, intermingled with a dash of truffles and cedar. On the palate, it has a fresh acidity, velvety tannins, and a long harmonious finish.

'Callabriga' is made at the state-of-the-art, gravity-fed Quinta da Leda winery. After full destemming, the grapes underwent gentle crushing before being transferred to stainless-steel tanks for fermentation at controlled temperatures. Following fermentation, there was an extended maceration on the skins to extract silky tannins. The wine was then racked off the skins and aged in a combination of new American oak (25%) and used French oak (75%) barrels for 12 months. The final blend was carefully assembled after numerous tastings and analysis and was gently filtered before bottling.

Luís Sottomayor describes the 2023 vintage in the Douro as “a very difficult year, one of the toughest in memory”, but “a year of very good quality”. The vintage was characterised by unusually hot and dry conditions (with record temperatures of 46.5°C recorded in Pinhão) and as a result yields were down 13% versus 2021. Meticulous attention to detail was required in the vineyards throughout the growing cycle to help the vines withstand the heat and drought: careful canopy management to prevent grape sunburn, control of cover crops to prevent competition with the vines for the scarce water available and selective green harvesting to reduce the vines’ load and prevent excessive stress.