Winemaking

At CORTES DE CIMA our wines are made from selected grapes harvested separately by hand from our own vineyards and fermented and aged individually in small batches. At Vindima (vintage), each vineyard is monitored and a decision is made as to the optimum time and order of harvesting each plot.

The grapes are fermented without stems under temperature control, with frequent delestage (rack-and-return), to enhance varietal fruit characters, and to provide tannin structure and balance.

Our best wines are aged in oak barrels for 6 to 12 months, prior to being estate bottled.

Reception

As our vineyards at Cortes de Cima are a maximum 2 km radius from the winery, the grapes arrive at the winery quickly and are processed soon after arriving.

Once they arrive at the winery the grapes are tipped into the receival hopper from which they move into the destemmer.

De-stemmer

It is in the de-stemmer that the grapes are separated from the stems. This is an important operation because the stems generally transfer very harsh tannins to the wine.

Primary Alcoholic Fermentation

Red juice is fermented with the skins, from which the color and the tannins are extracted. This usually takes from 5 to 7 days. Care is taken to keep the temperatures at about 23°-26° C. If the temperature gets much above 30° C the yeast can die and/or produce some off-flavors.

Delestage

During the fermentation the juice is pumped back over the skins to further increase extraction of color and flavor.

Hans, always liking to develop new machinery in the workshop, has developed a special overhead holding tank, unique to our winery. It is large enough so that all the juice in the tank can be drained off the grape skins, extracting the juice, color and tannins, and released again all in one go over the cap, to get maximum extraction from the skins. This is an efficient but gentle extraction process.

Pressing

Upon completion of the alcoholic fermentation, the wine is drained off the skins and the skins are pressed out in the press.

This process is conducted as gentle as possible to avoid extracting any bitter or harsh compounds from the pits.

Secondary Fermentation

From the press the juice is sent to oak barrels or to tanks for the secondary, or malo-lactic fermentation.

ML fermentation is an organic process that transforms Malic acid (derived from the Latin word malum or apple) to Lactic acid (derived from lactis, or milk, indicating a soft butteriness). It is an organic process performed by naturally occurring bacteria.

Barrel Ageing

Our premium red wines spend 6 to 12 months in wood (French or American Oak) and then are taken out for bottling.

Barrel ageing serves 2 purposes. The first is extraction of tannins, vanilla, oak lactones and other phenolics from the wood. The second is oxidation through a gradual exposure to oxygen through the grain of the wood.

During the time the wine is in the oak it must be checked constantly and the barrels must be kept topped up due to evaporation.

Bottling

All of our wines are bottled at the Estate.

This is the last step in a long process, which includes growing, winemaking, bottling and packaging, all done here at Cortes de Cima.

Winestyle

New World style from the Old World

Our wines combine the best New World techniques and technology with the flavors that come from well-ripened Portuguese grapes. Powerful concentrated fruit is backed by fine integrated French and American oak and balanced by ripe, smooth tannins. Although ready to drink on release, our wines will continue to develop well and improve in the bottle.