Vallado Adelaide Red Magnum 2016

The Adelaide Tinto 2016 is a wine originating from a very old vineyard, from which no more than 400 grams of fruit are extracted per plant. A centenary vineyard, grown on a steep, hard-to-access slope on a tributary of the Douro, with a great variety of grape varieties, as was planted in the past. The result is a wine as rare, as unique, and as sublime as Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira. And then there is the decision ritual. Being a tribute to the great-great-grandmother of the current managers of the Quinta, João Ferreira Alvares Ribeiro, Francisco Ferreira, and Francisco Olazabal, the wine is only released if, unanimously, the three great-great-grandchildren agree. The criterion is simple. Does it have enough concentration? Is it complex, fresh, with silky tannins? Will it have a long life, decades? Will it be a Grand Vin? If all agree, there is Adelaide. But just one dissent, one disagreement, one sulk, and the wine has another fate: the cellar, where it will wait for time to bring the desired complexity — a complexity far from present trends — or another, less noble, baptism. This is the protocol.