Quinta de la Rosa, Douro, Portugal

Bergqvist family – pioneers of non-fortified Douro wines

Quinta de la Rosa was not, at first, typical of these local landowners. The vineyards that form the nucleus of their current holdings were purchased in 1906 as a christening present for Claire Bergqvist, a family member of the Port shipping company Feuerheerd Bros. However, Feuerheerd Bros. would eventually fail, victim of a general downturn in port, and Claire’s vineyards returned to the anonymity of sharecropping contracts. Having become typical of a small Quinta in their adversity, de La Rosa soon became exemplary of the Douro winemaking revolution, enabled to sell directly into European markets by the accession of Portugal to the European Union in 1986. The bureaucracy of trading changed, with small producers no longer necessarily tied to an oligopoly of large export firms. It was in this window of opportunity that the protagonists of the modern Quinta de la Rosa saw their chance – Sophia, and her father Tim. Sophia had studied at the University of Cambridge, a personal link that would one day eventuate in our own close relationship with the Quinta. Initially their output was limited to ports, but soon afterwards they became one of the pioneering producers of non-fortified wines in the Douro, an ongoing transformation of the fortunes of the region, and one which continually produces ever-higher quality and interest. Indeed, Quinta de la Rosa’s output of dry red and white wines forms the core of the range we import, produced from autochthonous varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Alvarinho, Viosinho, Rabigato and Gouveio.

Vineyards

Situated near the town of Pinhão, the Quinta currently possesses 62 hectares of contiguous vineyards on the northern slope of a meander composed of schist and decomposed schist soils. The banks here are steep, cut into a nesting series of terraces. In this arrangement, every plot of the Quinta’s holdings benefits from the best possible exposure. Grown on exemplary terroir, the wines have no issue achieving sugar and phenolic ripeness, so picking can always be optimised for quality and style. Although most of the vineyards are planted with defined varieties, the Quinta also possesses areas of older, unspecified field blends that add character and interest to their wines. In the winery, sorting is done by hand, with their top bottlings still made through the venerable method of foot-treading in large granite ‘lagares’. Their dry wines are destemmed and enjoy a brief period of maceration before treading, with fermentation taking place in stainless steel. The Quinta employs minimal punching down to keep extraction controlled, and their wines generally feel well balanced despite their potential ripeness.
The ports are made in a fully traditional method, with foot treading without destemming to maintain tannins and offer structure irrespective of residual sugar. For the ports, fermentation is allowed to happen in the granite tanks before the addition of brandy to arrest the yeast. Following fermentation, both fortified wine and non-fortified wines are aged in French oak. Their ports represent excellent value, and have a complex vinous character without being oversweet. We are proud to put our name to their reserve port, which we bottle under our own label. This provides consumers with a classic, single Quinta port at a price/quality ratio often lacking in the analogous (and anonymous) offerings of the large port houses

Their Wines