Our wine expert ventures inside the legendary Portuguese wine Barca-Velha.
At the same time as the legendary Penfolds’ winemaker, Max Schubert, was experimenting with creating a uniquely-styled still (i.e. non-sparkling, non-fortified) red wine in South Australia, 10,500 miles away, another visionary winemaker, Fernando Nicolau de Almeida, was also creating a pioneering still red wine in the Douro Valley of Portugal. These two winemakers – who did not know each other – both seem to have had the same idea, at the same time, while facing their own set of complex challenges to get their respective passion projects off the ground.
For Schubert, he worked for a company, Penfolds, known at the time for producing fortified wines: sherry and port-style wines. Almeida, the winemaker at Casa Ferreirinha, under the ownership of the Ferreira family, also made fortified wines in the famed Port region. Both winemakers believed in the revolutionary idea of creating a blended wine not from a single estate but from different vineyard terroirs growing the very best grapes that could age gracefully for decades. Both sat on their first vintages for many years before getting approval to commercially release their new-styled wines. The first commercial vintage released from both of these remarkable winemakers was exactly the same: 1952.
Like Penfolds Grange, Barca-Velha – named after an old boat that ferried workers across the Douro river – is the most iconic still wine from its region. For students who have taken Paper 3 of the WSET Diploma, they will be intimately familiar with Barca-Velha, as it prominently appears in the textbook for Portugal as the first non-fortified fine wine from the Douro Valley. However, outside of Portugal, Brazil and Angola – traditionally the strongest markets for the wine – many wine lovers and collectors might never have come across it. Unlike Penfolds Grange which is made in rather large quantities (up to 100,000 bottles depending upon the vintage), Barca-Velha’s production can be as low as 16,000 bottles (for the recent 2015 vintage release) and as high as 45,000 bottles (for the 1985 vintage). Further compounding the problem of shedding light on this iconic wine is that there have only been 21 declared vintages of Barca-Velha since 1952, as compared with 73 for Penfolds Grange (including the experimental 1951 vintage which was never commercially released).
The Visionary
Fernando Nicolau de Almeida was no ordinary winemaker. Conceiving the idea of creating a non-fortified wine of the highest quality level utilising indigenous Port grapes, he had to solve a number of seemingly intractable problems. For starters, utilising high-quality grapes for still wines was novel and contrary to the presumed wisdom as Port wines were sold for large premiums across the world. Fernando, therefore, had to find terroir not traditionally associated with the best Ports to source high-quality grapes for still wines. The Douro Superior is the highest part of the Douro Valley, and furthest away from the city of Porto. It also has the least accessibility in terms of infrastructure and a ready workforce. This was the place that Fernando chose to conduct his still wine experiment.
Almeida took the majority of his grapes from the lower parts of the Douro Superior, at a height of 120-280 metres above sea-level, principally from the vineyards of Quinta do Vale Meão. These were owned by his employer, the Ferreira family, who had started their first Port house in 1751 and whose most famous member was the widow, Dona Antónia Ferreira, responsible for rapidly expanding the family business under her tenure and whose nickname (“small lady Ferreira”) is now the name of the estate, Casa Ferreirinha.
However, making a long-lasting, high-quality still wine from Port grapes in this location would not alone be sufficient to ensure the freshness and structure needed to ensure that the wines did not become old before their time. Almeida conceived of the notion of including grapes in the fermentation that were grown by farmers – some of whom were cousins of the Ferreira family – in the highest reaches of the Douro Superior, up to 650 metres above sea-level. These grapes were sufficiently high in acidity and structure that they would help create a long-ageing blend when co-fermented with grapes contributing colour and phenolic ripeness coming from lower altitude.
But how to control fermentation temperatures, critical for creating a quality still wine, in a remote region which had no access to electricity? With the advice of famed Bordeaux oenologist, Professor Emile Peynaud, he settled upon the idea of trucking ice overnight from Porto to the winery, and remounting pumps inside of open-topped Portuguese oak fermentation vats, thus being able to keep fermentation temperatures between 28-30 degrees. The idea was so bizarre to locals that they thought Almeida insane.
Change of Ownership
Between 1966–1978, no Barca-Velha was produced as the vineyards were replanted utilising modern techniques. In 1979, the Ferreira family purchased Quinta da Leda, also replanting the vines. In 1987, Ferreira sold the company to Sogrape, although they decided to keep Quinta do Vale Meão within the family.
At first, Sogrape continued to buy grapes from Quinta do Vale Meão to be blended together with others, but by 1999, all grapes from the lower parts of the Douro Superior were sourced from the company’s own vines at Quinta da Leda.
Today, the current (and only the third) winemaker of Barca-Velha, Luis Sottomayor, is able to source all of the grapes he requires from the highest parts of the Douro Superior from vineyards owned by Sogrape, alongside grapes coming from Casa Ferreirinha’s lower-altitude vineyards. Nonetheless, the best grapes at Quinta da Leda are produced on only 60 hectares of the total 170 hectare estate, and the grapes sourced for the blend can differ in any given declared vintage, just as is the case for Penfolds Grange today. It is important to emphasize that Barca-Velha and Penfolds Grange never were and still are not single estate wines.
Luis Sottomayor: Barca-Velha’s current custodian
Luis Sottomayor is in charge of a team of seven winemakers, and 120 staff, divided fairly equally between the vineyards and wineries owned by Sogrape in Portugal. He not only makes Barca-Velha, but a number of other still wines under the Casa Ferreirinha estate brand, as well as Sogrape’s Port wines. These include the high-quality Reserva Especial. Sottomayor is in sole charge of deciding when to declare either a Barca-Velha or a Reserva Especial. “The key is not quality or aroma, but determining age-worthiness based on the quality of tannins, structure and acidity of the wine”, says Sottomayor.
There have been 32 vintages where the head winemaker has neither declared a Barca-Velha, nor a Reserva Especial. For Sottomayor, he has a range of different labels for wines coming from Casa Ferreirinha, including those that do not make the grade for a Barca-Velha or Reserva Especial: Quinta da Leda, Castas Escondidas, Callabriga, and Vinha Grande (as a red, white or rose wine).
Porto v. Arsenal…and Quinta da Leda
I first met Luis Sottomayor when I literally bumped into him at the Estádio do Dragão running to my seat to watch by far the world’s greatest football team, Arsenal, play Porto – although we lost the game! Luis is a long-time Porto fan and season ticket holder. The following day Luis invited me to drive up to Quinta da Leda to see the vineyards and winery.
After a two-and-a-half-hour car journey, we reached the upper reaches of the Douro Valley. Luis had laid on a lunch, novelly situated inside one of the lagares – large granite tubs where the grapes are crushed by robotic treading machines. Once fermentation begins, the juice is transferred to stainless steel vats until fermentation is completed (usually after a week). Thereafter, the wine is transported to the Sogrape warehouses in Vila Nova de Gaia, on the other side of the river to Porto, where the wine is matured in French oak Bordeaux barrels for up to 18 months.
A final blend is completed during the maturation process, and the wines are finally bottled in Burgundy-style bottles before resting in the cellars for as long as the winemaker believes they are ready to be consumed, on average, 9 years after harvest. Luis tastes the wines twice a month with his team. Declaring a vintage is clearly one of his most important tasks. “For the recent 2015 vintage, I knew quite early on that I would declare a Barca-Velha, as the wine had all the structural elements and complexity required. But I still worry whether I should have declared 2001 as a Barca-Velha rather than a Reserva Especial”, Luis tells me.
Once he has determined to declare a Barca-Velha, he speaks to family owner and President of Sogrape, Fernando da Cunha Guedes, to inform him of his decision. Fernando then arranges a lunch for Sogrape’s key internal stakeholders where Luis will present the wine, typically over a meal of partridge shot by Luis, a keen huntsman.
Soils & Varietals
There is an institutionalised misconception in the English-speaking world of wine writers that the soils of the Douro Valley are principally composed of schist. In fact, a quick look at the soils map produced by the Port regulator, IVDP, shows that schist is actually quite rare in the region.
My friend and Port expert, American-born Ryan Opaz tried to explain how this all came about: “In Portuguese, the word for shale is Xisto argiloso (or argila xistosa) which the Portuguese refer to as Xisto for short. I think English-speaking wine experts misinterpreted the Portuguese, assuming Xisto referred to schist, the type of soils found in parts of the Northern Rhône Valley. In fact, it’s yellow shale, very old soils that crumble into small pieces and are rich in iron”, Ryan explains. (Speaking with Luis Sottomayor, he confirmed that, indeed, the soils are shale.)
The grape varietals that make up the blend in Barca-Velha have changed greatly over the last twenty years or more, mainly down to the fact that Luis has seen a decline in the quality of Tinta Roriz – Tempranillo across the border in Spain – which made up the majority of the blend in prior decades. Today, more than 80% of the blend comprises Touriga Franca that gives “body and structure” and Touriga Nacional that provides “complexity and aroma” to the wine. The balance derives from Sousão (10%), Tinta Cão (5%) and Tinta Roriz (2%), which act “like seasoning for the wine: salt and pepper”, Luis explains. However, the exact varietal blend varies from vintage to vintage.
The estate uses the double-guyot vine training system in the vineyards. Since 1952, the varietal blend has been harvested at the same time and co-fermented together in order to keep intact the attributes of the grapes coming from the lower and higher regions of the Douro Superior. Colour and phenolics are extracted through pumping over during fermentation.
How do the wines taste?
It is key to understand that, despite all the changes that have happened since the inaugural 1952 vintage, “there has always been a strong determination to maintain continuity in style, quality and consistency in every declared vintage of Barca-Velha”, according to Luis.
I have been fortunate to taste a number of vintages of Barca-Velha, as well as collecting the wine for my own cellar. Unfortunately, I have still not been able to taste 1954 Barca-Velha, Luis Sottomayor’s favourite vintage, which remains on my bucket-list.
Barca Velha 1999 at Golden Vines Gala
Such is my respect for Barca-Velha as one of the world’s greatest fine wines that I asked the President of Sogrape, Fernando da Cunha Guedes, whether he would showcase the wine at The 2024 Golden Vines® Madrid Gala dinner, an event organised for the benefit of the Gérard Basset Foundation, celebrating the very best fine wine estates globally as voted by over 1,000 fine wine professionals, with the results independently verified by Deloitte LP.
Barca-Velha 1999 (in Magnum): At the 2024 Golden Vines® Madrid, we served the 1999 vintage in Magnums, a wine that Luis Sottomayor believes best displays the longevity and quality of Barca-Velha today. The wine was a triumph, wowing the vast majority of the crowd of 275 discerning fine wine lovers. Perhaps surprisingly for a wine from the Port region, 1999 Barca-Velha was refined, elegant and surprisingly drinkable. It exudes class. It still had plenty of decades ahead of it. (£2,000+ per Magnum)
Barca-Velha 2011: Luis refers to this vintage as “the Lion: afraid of nothing – it shouts, I am Barca-Velha”. A very complex wine, fruit-forward with a delicious balsamic, spice and stoney characteristics. Despite being rich, the wine is not heavy, and has a very long finish. As a wine from a hot vintage, Luis’s blend included up to 25% of grapes from the highest parts of the Douro Superior, adding freshness and acidity to the final wine. (£500 per bottle)
Barca-Velha 2008: In contrast to the 2011 vintage, 2008 was a cool year in the Douro Valley. As such the blend had a far lower composition of grapes from the highest parts of the Douro Superior, as opposed to those coming from Quinta da Leda lower down. I have to say I fell in love with the 2008 for its elegance, freshness, subtle complexity and silky mouthfeel. More red fruit in character compared with the darker-fruit 2011 vintage, there’s an incredible tension and youthful austerity in the wine. (£850 per bottle)
Barca-Velha 2004: More evolved on the nose than any of the other wines, with strong hints of forest floor, mushroom, and some browning on the edges, this is a wine that seems to have already peaked. Having said that, Fernando thought the bottle we opened was not representative of the vintage. (£900 per bottle)
Barca-Velha 1983: Served with Welsh lamb, the wine still had glimmers of its youth and, according to Luis, “was on the highway of its ageing capability”, having reached a desired level of complexity “some years ago”. Like the 2004, the 1983 vintage wafted aromas of mushroom and earthiness, but seemed a touch fresher and appealing in the mouth. (£750 per bottle)
Barca-Velha 2015 (the newest release): from a vintage that was neither as cold as 2008, nor as hot as 2011. 18% of the grapes were sourced from the estate’s highest vineyards. This wine clearly has the capacity to age for many decades thanks to its tannic structure and fresh acidity. Balanced with alcohol at 13.5% ABV, intense red and black fruit flavours, tell-tale balsamic notes (typical of Barca-Velha), hints of sous bois, savoury spice and a stoney character, this is a highly complex wine. Unfortunately for wine-lovers, only 16,000 bottles were produced, a record low for a declared vintage. (£550 per bottle)
Barca-Velha & Penfolds Grange: A grand tasting in the making
On returning from my visit to Portugal, I immediately called my old friend, longtime head winemaker at Penfold’s, Peter Gago. Although Peter knew of Barca-Velha, he had no idea of the incredible similarities between these two greats of the fine wine world. I suggested we organise a grand tasting with Fernando, Luis and Peter to compare Penfolds Grange and Barca-Velha. Be sure to read my Robb Report article should I ever manage to arrange this organisational feat!
The 2025 edition of the Golden Vines awards will take place in Miami in November. liquidicons.com
