I have to confess that I have been hiding precious information from you. Not intentionally, but just today realized I have never talked about a special project that kept us busy for a couple of years. There it goes without more delay, we are converting a parcel of vineyards to organic farming! That parcel is around 5 hectares of vines located in Quinta da Trovisca. After a period of three years in conversion, this is, this is after 2015 we will be harvesting organic grapes which we plan to use to produce both Port and Douro wines.
The organic passion in the family goes back to 2006, when my father, Oscar Quevedo – from whom I get the name from, started producing organic olive oil in Valongo dos Azeites, a village 10km south of our winery. It took 7 years but eventually we dare to convert vines to organic farming. There are plenty of additional work on organic farming when compared to regular managed vineyards. One of those extra works is related to floor management. On the video above we can see weeds being removed by hand/hoe over the line where vines are planted. In between the lines we will let weeds grow a bit more and then we will use a tractor to cut them.
Hope to see you soon,
Oscar
