Touriga Nacional is one of the two most important grape varieties for the Vesuvio red wine. These vines are grown in the Quinta Nova vineyard located at 450 metres altitude, with a fine westerly aspect. This area of the estate was acquired for Vesuvio by Dona Antonia Ferreira in the mid-19th century. Little can she have imagined how valuable these high vineyards would be for the estate’s red wines in the 21st century.

Winter and early spring rainfall was roughly in line with the average, but higher-thanaverage temperatures brought forward the vegetative cycle by three weeks. If overall rainfall levels were reassuring, the temperatures were far from it: every month apart from April was considerably warmer than the 30-year mean. With virtually no rain in June or July, we were relieved to have 12.6 mm falling on 20th August, although the rain was followed by three heat waves lasting until mid-September. With the heat diminishing the benefit of the rainwater – and faced with the possibility of berry dehydration – we began picking our white grapes from the 25th August. These were in surprisingly good condition (given the summer drought), allowing us to make some very good wines. Production was down by 40% in some properties, but the lower yields were compensated by overall good quality.