Quinta do Crasto Touriga Franca 2017

€ 59.20

Quinta do Crasto Touriga Franca is rich violet in colour. On the nose, it offers an impressive intensity and highly concentrated aromas of red fruits in perfect harmony with soft floral notes. In the mouth, it starts intensely and then evolves into an elegant wine, with excellent mouth volume and silky tannins, all of which are well integrated with notes of red fruits. The finish is fresh and persistent. This is a balanced wine that conveys the true essence of the grape variety.

Food pairing

Ideal for all kinds of meat, especially grilled meat dishes.

Grapes: Touriga Franca (100%)

aged 18 months in new French oak barrels of 225 liters

Single-varietal Touriga Franca wines are rarely found. However, this is an emblematic Douro grape that is well adapted to the viticultural characteristics of the region and highly interesting oenologically speaking. It is a reliable variety that has the great virtue of producing low levels of alcohol in spite of the heat in a region such as the Douro. Despite these positive features, Touriga Franca is a challenging variety as it only achieves its true potential when it reaches perfect phenolic maturation. That is why the Quinta do Crasto Touriga Franca matures late, in other words, the grapes of this variety require a long time to reach the right and perfect ripeness. In order to achieve this, the grapes need to come into equilibrium, which only happens in a terroir with all the necessary conditions to produce a truly exceptional wine.

The 2017 harvest is the earliest ever at Quinta do Crasto. A warm and dry winter meant that the vines’ growth cycle began earlier than normal. Low rainfall continued throughout the cycle leading to moderate water stress and the vines had to naturally adapt to these adverse weather conditions. Harvest began on 8 August, with the first white grapes. This was an important decision since it allowed us the desired levels of freshness and natural acidity. On 18 August, we started picking the red grapes at the Quinta da Cabreira vineyard in the Douro Superior subregion. We are able to irrigate the grapes on this property and this was instrumental in keeping the vines working in a well-balanced fashion and enabled the berries to achieve perfect ripeness. In late August, evening temperatures fell significantly, which helped finish of the ripening of the grapes. A period of warm days combined with cool nights yielded the perfect balance, so that the harvest of the first Quinta do Crasto red grapes could begin. Dry days in September ensured a smooth harvest. The harvest

wrapped up much earlier than normal, namely on 19 September. On balance, we can say that 2017 was a year of lower yields, with fewer bunches of smaller grapes, but that had excellent concentration and an optimal skin to pulp ratio. This was a challenging year for the viticulture and winemaking teams. We had to perfectly time the harvest to ensure maximum quality. 2017 will certainly go down in history as a year of exceptional wine

Alcoholcontent

14,5%vol

pH: 3,67

Store & Serve

Store at a constant temperature of 15 ° C.

Serve and decant at 16 ° C. Drink from now until 2031