Don’t be ashamed if you haven’t heard about Casal dos Jordões… it’s a relative small, relatively young Port producer. Since 1994 we can buy Port Wines of this brand. But, as so often the case in the Douro, this is only what we see on the surface – and there is so much more to a company than we can see.
The family is making wines since 1870 – but they sold their wines to the large producers – like Sandeman. Only when Portugal joined the EU and it was finally possible for small producer to bottle and to ship their own wines relatively easy, the idea grew in the mind of Arlindo da Costa Pinto e Cruz to sell the wine under the label Casal dos Jordões.
1994 was the first year in which wines were sold under the own label – but only a part, as the family continued to sell wine to producers like Sandeman.
The quality of the wines in the year 2000 was so good that the family launched the first Vintage Port under the new label… which was followed in the coming years by Vintages from 2002, 2004 and of course 2011. It’s not easy to find these vintages, as the production is quite small… between 5000 and 8000 bottles were produced.
The company is famous for bottling certified organic Port Wine. I believe that Casal dos Jordões is one of the producers in the Douro Valley that are the most serious about making organic wines and focus on sustainable farming.
The main vineyard is Quinta da Esteveira. Would we draw a triangle between São João da Pesqueira, Castanheiro do Sul and Ervedosa do Douro then this Quinta would be somewhere near the center of this triangle. It’s located near the Rio Torto and consists of roughly 50 hectares of vineyards. The main grapes are the usual suspects: Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão, Touriga Nacional and Sousão… plus a small number of vines of other grape varieties.
All the grapes for the wines of Casal dos Jordões grow in altitudes between 90 and 350 meters above sea-level.
The vinification happens in Casais do Douro – a small but beautiful village. Here we find the typical “Lagares” to make the best Port Wine and the Reserve Douro Wines – plus the INOX steel tanks to make the other wines. The Lagares have the capacity to help up to 15,000 liters of Wine to Ferment… while the steel-tanks can hold up to 450,000 liters! You need a lot of space to mature wine in wooden barrels – and currently the company has only room to store approx. 12,000 liter in barrels – but it’s planed to increase that number to impressive 100,000 liter over the next years.
In addition to the barrels 80,000 bottles can be stored on the property.
As mentioned before, it’s not easy to find the wine of this producers… you might have a good chance to see them in Porto at one of the World’s best Port Wine bars: Portologia.
The company makes decent Vintage Ports that are quite good but lack a massive tannin-structure… which is not a bad thing as this means that they can be drunk sooner rather than later… which fits nicely those people that prefer to drink their Vintage Ports quite young rather than aging them for decades…
If you can’t find any Vintage Port from this producer then please try to get your hands on their 10 Year old Tawnies… they are quite good.
Rua da Fonte nº 27 – Casais do Douro
5130-056 São João da Pesqueira
Portugal
Tel: +351 259 092 358 or +351 93 46 45 296
Email: geral@winedouro.com
Web-Page: www.winedouro.com