Costa Boal launches Portugal’s first Tinta Gorda – News
The Palácio dos Távoras Tinta Gorda 2020 and the Palácio dos Távoras Bago a Bago 2020 blend confirm Costa Boal’s commitment to the production of wines from a unique heritage.
The adventurous spirit remains. Costa Boal is once again surprising with the launch of two wines from a century-old Sendim vineyard, in Douro Internacional and on the Trás-os-Montes border with Spain.
Integrated in the top range from Costa Boal to Trás-os-Montes, the Palácio dos Távoras Tinta Gorda 2020 and the Palácio dos Távoras Bago a Bago “reflect a lot the specificity of the sub-region of Planalto Mirandês. They have a very genuine side, unparalleled with other wine profiles”, presents the project’s oenologist, Paulo Nunes, highlighting the historical context of Trás-os-Montes that allows these particularities to be contextualized.
“The isolation of the past favored the construction and preservation of a unique wine heritage, built with time and the work of several generations, in a space that is restricted to a few kilometers. Only these conditions allow that, in a time of global access, it may still be possible to present the first wine produced with a Tinta Gorda variety”, he concludes.
Also exceptional, depending on the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Planalto Mirandês sub-region, namely in terms of land consolidation and climate, reinforce the originality and unique character of the profile of the new wines and the diversity of the Trás-os-Montes wine region. An example of this heterogeneity, highlights António Boal, “are the wines from the same Palácio dos Távoras range that Costa Boal produces in the sub-region of Valpaços, Mirandela”.
“They are completely different, although they are both from Trás-os-Montes, from old vines and from the same producer”, adds Paulo Nunes.
The first wine of the Tinta Gorda variety produced in Portugal by Costa Boal, reveals Paulo Nunes, has an open color, typical of a low-dye variety, and an “accessible to the consumer”, “easy without being banal” profile.
In line with careful vinification and minimal intervention, which preserves the fruit and the full potential of the varieties, the new Palácio dos Távoras red blend from the centenary vineyard of Planalto Mirandês is made from grapes harvested berry by berry and includes 10 percent of white grape, present in the batch.
Originating further west, in the sub-region of Valpaços and in the municipality of Mirandela, is the mother vine of the Palácio dos Távoras range, which are now being launched as new editions Palácio dos Távoras Gold Edition 2018, Palácio dos Távoras Alicante Bouschet 2018 and Palácio dos Távoras Grande Reserva white 2020.
These wines originate from the old vineyard of around seven hectares that Costa Boal acquired in 2010 in Chelas, Mirandela, and to which the producer recently added another six hectares, acquiring a 55-year-old vineyard populated with the traditional blend of varieties from the ancient vineyards of the region.