2004 Vintage Port
2004 was an unusual Vintage. Rarely has a vintage hung in the balance. The rain in early August was incredibly important, as was the perfect weather throughout the picking. These two key factors allowed some excellent Vintage Ports to be produced.
Drinking Status
Excellent now, for those who enjoy wines with deep concentrated fruit. An explosion of fruit!
Tasting Notes
The 2004 Vintage Ports show intense deep purple-red colour, a factor that was strongly influenced by the August rains that softened the skins and allowed for better colour extraction. The nose is lifted and fresh, again thanks to the cooler August weather. The taste is rich, firm and with good acidity and fine peppery tannins. These wines are most attractive and will age extremely well.
Climatic Conditions
The 2004 harvest followed an extraordinary viticultural year: October and November 2003 were very wet which was followed by an incredibly dry start to 2004. Only 147mm of rain fell in Pinhao from January to the end of April. This is half the ten year average, a dramatic lack of rainfall at a very crucial period.
There was a great deal of concern as to how the vines would cope with a normal hot Douro summer, given the low reserves of water in the soil.
Fruit set was slightly less than normal due to very rapid shoot growth that was encouraged by the unusually dry, warm and sunny conditions in May.
Concern grew as August approached, normally the hottest month of the year. The vines were in excellent condition, but excessive hydric stress was clearly going to occur. In the event the almost impossible occurred: good rain in August.
Rain fell on the 9th, 10 and 11th August and again on the 16th and 17th. In total 77 mm fell during the month, the highest August rainfall for many years. This was accompanied by relatively low temperatures for the Douro. As a result ripening slowed dramatically. Early September started with unsettled weather that could easily have caused considerable damage to the grapes. The producers, faced a major dilemma; start the vintage with grapes that were not at ideal maturity so as to avoid the high risk of rot if rain were to set in, or wait and hope for better weather. For those who took the risk, the forecast swung in their favour, harvesting started some 10 days later than usual.
There then followed 25 days of uninterrupted sunshine with temperatures around 30ºC everyday. The entire harvest was completed without any rain falling. On the 9th and 10th October the weather finally broke with heavy rain and strong winds, but by then most of the grapes were all safely in the wineries.
Vinification
As a direct result of the very unusual weather pattern, the 2004 surpassed all expectations. Yields were lower than average due to the very dry winter, but the colour of the musts in the lagares and the fermentation tanks was excellent. Cooling equipment was essential as the grapes were coming into the wineries on some afternoons at 24ºC.
Winemaker's Comments
"The grapes were in very good condition; Baumés were above average at about 13º. Tinta Franca and Tinta Nacional gave lower than average yields but showed fine concentrated musts. The Roriz and Barroca performed particularly well, the latter giving good yields as it was picked first, while the other varieties became more concentrated during the warm September weather. Yields in the Douro were low as usual, 1.68 kgs per vine for Touriga Franca and as low as 0.49 kgs for the old vines."
Charles Symington
October 2004
The 2004 Vintage Ports show intense deep purple-red colour, a factor that was strongly influenced by the August rains that softened the skins and allowed for better colour extraction. The nose is lifted and fresh, again thanks to the cooler August weather. The taste is rich, firm and with good acidity and fine peppery tannins. These wines are most attractive and will age extremely well.