Description
Beyra White Wine 2012
Intense fruitiness, minerality and freshness of the altitude wines.This 2012 won the Decanter World Wine Awards Trophy for Best Portuguese White under £15. The striking zesty and green-fruit character in Beyra Branco do make it an excellent and high quality introduction to Portugal for people who enjoy aromatic dry whites.
«This wine’s soul results from an unique combination of Síria and Fonte Cal native grapes, grown in granitic and schist soil with high amounts of silex in the basin of the douro river, at an average altitude of 700 meters»
Rui Madeira
The Region and Producer
At 700m, very close to the Spanish border, and south of the Douro, Rui Madeira is single-handedly reviving a region’s reputation. Some of the vines here are exceptionally old. White varieties are Fonta Cal and Siria, while balck cultivars include Jean (Mencia), Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro and others.
I was born and grew up in Lisbon (capital of Portugal), spending most my school holidays at the family home in the Douro Superior, Beira Alta region. Here the scents and smells of our rugged and beautiful landscape made a powerful impression on me.
Having travelled many of the winemaking regions of the world and learned about their practices, I was drawn back to my heartlands, convinced of their great potential to make world class wines. In 2011 I returned to the same winery where I did my first grape harvest in 1987, in the small village of Vermiosa. Here on these high plains, I rediscovered Portugal’s viticultural treasures, a unique heritage of very old vines, perfectly adapted to the soils of granite and schist and quartz.
These great vineyards of the Douro region continue to inspire my passion for winemaking.Rui Madeira
http://www.beyra.com/en/
WEATHER
Vermiosa is about viticulture at more than 700 meters above the sea level and a special type of soil.
The main benefit of altitude is the cooler climate, which allows for higher levels of acidity in the must, achieved thanks to greater thermal fluctuations between day and night. The cool nights make ripening slower and more even, enhancing the concentration of aromas and flavours in the grape. During the day, the solar radiation is high, which helps photosynthesis, increasing the coloration of grape and reaching appropriate sugar levels (alcoholic content).
SOILS
Our wine’s soul derives from the local grapes grown on the unique soils of Vermiosa, in a transition area from schist to granite with high amounts of silex.
The location is close to the Douro region and shares many of its attributes, but highlighting the freshness and mineral flavors.
Here we have a better soil aeration, lower nutrient retention, low yields but mainly better insolation due to the reflection of sunlight by quartz, getting better and more balanced grape maturation. With this we have an higher aromatic purity, because there has no overripening of the grapes, showing all his character.
