Wine and patience

"Get ready to work and have a lot of patience" were Anselmo Mendes' words when, in the early 1990s, after getting to know my property in Santa Comba Dão, he challenged me to produce a great Dão.

We wanted to produce a wine of great complexity and elegance, revealing subtle and complex aromas, intense but with a delicate structure in the mouth. We also wanted a good ageing capacity and longevity, a characteristic that distinguishes great wines.

At that time the vineyard was restructured and it wasn't until 2004 that Anselmo Mendes felt the conditions were right for the first harvest.  With the stainless steel, wood and bottle ageing it underwent, Primado Red 2004 would only begin to be commercialised in 2008. Despite the four years of different stages and the eagerness to present Primado, I realise today that we should have known to wait a few more years. Even now, this Primado Red 2004 is extraordinarily fresh and evolving remarkably.

Patrícia Santos, who has since joined the project, has also shown that she is a fan of knowing how to wait for wines. So the moment to present Primado Red to the market is always the fruit of deep reflection.

Time is the great test for any wine. Over time, a great wine evolves, acquiring greater complexity and revealing attributes that make it magnificent.

Aging in stainless steel, in barrels and for a long time in the bottle is fundamental for a wine's good evolution. If the wine is placed on the market before it has reached its ideal point of consumption, the responsibility for the bottle ageing is being transferred to the consumer, who will probably consume the wine before the right time, thus losing a good part of its potential.

Obviously, this concept of placing these red wines on the market only at their ideal point of consumption, many years after they were harvested, has very high costs for the producer. Despite this, we continue to do so because we believe it's a matter of respect for the consumer.

The vertical tastings of Primado Red that have already taken place have created moments of delight and rapture in those present because of the wines' capacity for good evolution and longevity.

Great wines need time, their producers need patience!

Manuel Pereira de Melo