Quinta dos Carvalhais, Dão Branco
Vintage: 2024
| Vintage | Product Code | Format | Closure | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | QC115B24 | 6 x 75 | Natural Cork | Available |
Producer
Quinta dos Carvalhais is credited with spearheading the quality renaissance of Dão wines in the early ‘90s and continues to make some of the region's finest wines today. After being purchased by Sogrape in 1988, significant improvements were made to the winery and vineyards, including the replanting of near-extinct Dão varieties such as Encruzado, a grape now heralded as one of Portugal’s finest. Current Quinta dos Carvalhais winemaker Beatriz Cabral de Almeida continues to champion these varieties, making an impressive range of estate wines that show lovely depth, vibrant fruit, and exceptional elegance.
The estate’s 50 hectares of vineyards are mainly planted predominantly with white indigenous varieties; each matched to a specific vineyard plot. Circled by mountains and located 465 to 500 metres above sea level, a combination of granite soils and warm days followed by cool nights lends great ripeness and elegance to the wines. Quinta dos Carvalhais follows viticulture practices in harmony with nature, grazing sheep in the vineyards both to boost soil health and reduce the use of herbicides to a minimum. The modern gravity-flow winery is filled with numerous small stainless-steel fermentation tanks, allowing plots to be vinified separately. Typical of the Dão, all Quinta dos Carvalhais’s wines undergo oak ageing, with Beatriz expertly employing a mixture of new and used barrels of varying sizes to subtly integrate the influence of oak.
Quinta dos Carvalhais’s single-variety wines are complex blends of different plots on the estate, vinified separately before blending. The Encruzado, partially fermented and aged for eight months in French oak barrels of varying sizes, marries the vibrancy of this variety with delicious toasty notes from the oak. The Touriga Nacional showcases this prized indigenous variety's signature black fruit and violet characters alongside a well-integrated spiciness from 12 months in French oak.
The Branco Reserva is a blend of Encruzado and Gouveio aged for 18 months in used French oak. It balances the citrus-fruit freshness of both varieties with a savoury complexity derived from time in barrel. The Branco Especial is a unique non-vintage blend of oak-aged whites from seven different vintages. It is hugely complex, combining notes of dried fruits and nuts with a honeyed complexity bound together by a linear acidity.
The Tinto Reserva is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro and Tinta Roriz aged for 12 months in a combination of new and used French oak. It is a rich and sumptuous wine with pronounced black fruit aromas, polished tannins and a lingering finish. The ‘Único’ is a Touriga-Nacional-dominant blend, only produced in exceptional vintages from the best plots on the estate. Aged in French oak for 24 months, this wine treads the line between power and elegance. Intense and complex, the palate is layered with blackberry, black cherry and violet notes, with spicy nuances and a wonderful freshness.
Vineyards
The 105-hectare Quinta dos Carvalhais estate is situated at an altitude of 465-500 metres above sea level and has 50 hectares under vine on poor granite soils. Warm days and cool nights at this altitude slow down the grape ripening process and result in wines with lovely depth yet vibrant fruit and a signature freshness. Microzoning studies have been carried out on the estate, identifying nine different soil types and a multitude of different microclimates, and each grape variety has been matched to its ideal plot. All of the vineyards are farmed sustainably and harvesting is carried out by hand.
Vintage
Beatriz Cabral de Almeida summarised 2024 as ‘high quality in a year of extremes’. A wet spring was followed by April frosts and rains during flowering, which caused coulure. Good weather in late spring allowed the thriving clusters to develop well, but was followed by a hailstorm in June that damaged clusters and plants. Conditions were more settled until harvest, which ran from 2nd to 30th September but was interrupted by wildfires from 16th to 18th. Fortunately only a small part of the Estate’s forest and 0.35 hectares of vines were damaged. Timely rain showers on 19th helped to ‘cleanse’ the grapes still on vine, followed by welcome sunshine and a return to harvesting in full force. Production was down 15% versus 2023. Beatriz particularly noted the quality of the Gouveio grapes, which she deemed as ‘marvellous […] in terms of ripeness’, and the Encruzado, which she described as “complex and expressive from the very outset”.
Vinification
The grapes were hand harvested into 20kg boxes and vinified separately by grape variety and by plot. Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes were destemmed, gently crushed and pressed. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts took place mostly in stainless-steel tanks at 18°C. However, 35% of the Encruzado and 25% of the Gouveio was fermented in French oak barrels - a combination of new and used oak and a range of sizes from 225 litres to 500 litres - and then aged in these for four months, before the final blend was assembled and left to marry in bottle.
Tasting Notes & Technical Details
Bright yellow in colour. On the nose, aromas of ripe lemon, lime and white stone fruit are combined with floral hints and subtle brioche aromas from the oak. The flavours are pronounced on the palate and balanced by a crisp acidity which carries them onto the pleasantly fresh finish.
Alcohol (ABV)
13%
Acidity
5.6 g/l
Residual Sugar
1.5 g/l
pH
3.2
Other wines from this producer
Producer | Wine | Product Code | Features | Style | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quinta dos Carvalhais | Dão Encruzado | QC102 | W | Factsheet | |
| Dão Tinto | QC103 | R | |||
| Dão Touriga Nacional | QC108 | R | Factsheet | ||
| Dão Tinto Reserva | QC111 | R | Factsheet | ||
| Dão Branco Reserva | QC112 | W | Factsheet | ||
| Dão Branco Especial | QC113 | W | Factsheet | ||
| `Único` Dão Tinto | QC117 | R | Factsheet |