A dream fulfilled with every harvest
Every year, the launching of a new Legado evokes the passage of time in the history of Sogrape, the stuff dreams are made of since it began. Eight harvests that reflect the Douro at its best. That celebrate experience and life. A homage to the past, yet a wine of the present, conceived by Fernando Guedes with the future in mind. Legado 2015 is another dream fulfilled.
History has been repeating itself since 2008, but it is always good to tell the story again. Fernando Guedes, Sogrape’s chairman at the time, long dreamt of a wine capable of expressing the knowledge, passion and values of this family business, that has a special place in the Douro region and pay an homage to the valuable legacy to be passed down to future generations who would one day take the helm at Sogrape.
The Quinta do Caêdo vineyards in Ervedosa do Douro have been there for over 100 years. Yet these eight hectares rely entirely on nature to deliver the fruit of these vines for each harvest. This plot, part of a landscape that always held great fascination for Fernando Guedes, is the birthplace of a unique wine, different from the theoretical standards of perfection, but faithful to the terroir and, above all, the symbolic essence of his desire to create a legacy of experience, memory, and emotion in a bottle.
The recently launched Legado 2015 marks another chapter in this family history written in wine. “Legado will always symbolise the sharing of stories, principles and knowledge”, said Fernando da Cunha Guedes, current Sogrape chairman and son of the wine’s creator. “Because of the reason it was conceived, and the dreams and meaning attached to it, this is a very emotional wine for us, one that with every new harvest evokes the memory of my father and all that we learned from him.” As the family and the company like to say, “this is a wine that hits home the idea that we are here to stay, to carry on with this and other legacies that he left us.”
2015 was a hot year with excellent maturations. Luís Sottomayor, head winemaker of Sogrape’s Douro wines, says that “these conditions enabled us to achieve a more robust and full-bodied Legado, with an intense colour, good structure and volume”. Vinified in Quinta da Leda’s winery, in the Upper Douro, after ageing 30 months in new French oak barrels, “this new vintage lives up to the achievement of its predecessors, following a profile that embodies the authenticity of Quinta do Caêdo’s terroir, as well as the elegance and class achieved from ancestral grape varieties”, said Sottomayor.
Quantity produced: 4,666 bottles.
