172 Port anD the Douro
and Touriga Nacional, a variety notoriously susceptible to coulure, produced well. Sogrape
(owners of Ferreira and Offley) resorted to a green harvest of Touriga Nacional for the
first time ever. The weather continued to be fine, warm and dry through the summer but
without any of the extreme heat that burns and shrivels the grapes on the vine. Rain over the
weekend of 7/8 September helped to swell the berries. Tinta Roriz, the most capricious of
the top five Port grapes, had ripened evenly which is usually a sign of a fine vintage. In mid-
September Vasco Magalhaes, spokesperson for Sogrape, described the growing conditions
as ‘close to idyllic’.
Picking began in the Douro Superior during the week of 9 September but those further
downstream waited until the week of the 16th. On Friday 13 September an unusually
deep depression settled over western Iberia. With torrential rain and warm temperatures,
the grapes began to rot on the vine and the harvest became a race against time. The old
interplanted vineyards with a high percentage of Tinta Amarela (notoriously susceptible
to rot) were particularly badly hit. The wet weather continued on and off into October
and vintage was a stop-start affair. Those who picked before the rain set in (mostly in the
Douro Superior) made small quantities of good, even great, wine – but for most producers
2002 was a damp squib. Ports made towards the end of the harvest were particularly
dilute. Very few single-quinta wines have been released.
Men who shaPeD the Douro
Bruce Guimaraens 1935–2002
those who knew Bruce Guimaraens will know that the douro also shaped the man.
he was huge in every respect, jovial and full of bonhomie. i recall sitting down to a
large english breakfast with Bruce in Pinhão, accompanied by a glass of Port. Bruce
Guimaraens was passionate about good Port and was responsible for every Fonseca
vintage from 1960 until 1995. he joined his family company after leaving the army
in 1956 and trained under dick and stanley yeatman, followed by his aunt dorothy
Guimaraens (one of very few women to work in the Port trade). as head of winemaking
and vineyard management for both taylor and Fonseca, he knew every inch of the douro
and was treated with great respect and affection by growers and shippers alike. he had
a fund of funny stories, which he was able to tell equally well in english and Portuguese.
Bruce Guimaraens foresaw the growth in demand for premium quality Port and built
up the taylor and Fonseca vineyard holdings to become some of the best in the douro,
acquiring a number of prime quintas in the 1970s. he also instigated the production of
organic Port at Fonseca’s Quinta do Panascal in 1992. Bruce liked nothing better than a
good vintage Port; eschewing the purple prose favoured by wine writers, he would drain
the decanter with the irrefutable phrase ‘it’s bloody good vintage Port!’