Port anD the Douro 129vintage but a distinct handicap in a warm year, when twenty pairs of feet at the human
body temperature of 37°C can play havoc with any attempted temperature control. Hot
ambient temperatures during vintage may have still more serious implications, and it is
not that uncommon for a perfectly healthy crop to be spoiled if the temperature in a lagar
runs out of control. In the past, lagar fermentations were totally in the lap of the gods but
nearly all producers have installed heat exchangers to cool the must as necessary.
Once the fermentation is well underway, the manta (‘blanket’ or cap) of skins and
stalks rises to the surface, buoyed up by carbon dioxide. In order to keep it submerged
lagares: Myths anD rituals
Lagares are a repository of seemingly arcane myths and rituals, a number of which have
a practical justification from the not too distant past. For example, a few quintas still
continue to forbid women from treading a lagar claiming that ‘they spoil the wine’.
this seemingly sexist rule is rooted in hygiene. Putting it delicately, the populace of
the douro were at one time fairly small and the women were somewhat shorter than
the men anyway, so that the level of the must in the lagar would reach parts higher
up the body... nowadays, people tend to be taller, and with labour in relatively short
supply few properties can afford to pick and choose. But with no women present, it was
not uncommon for the treaders to improvise their own rather coarse songs during the
period of liberdade. in recent years a number of quintas have returned to employing local
musicians who play Portuguese folk songs or tub-thumping musica pimba. traditional
music demands that the treaders lift their legs higher, and therefore crush the grapes
more effectively, than they would shuffling to disco music coming from a cd.