Maria Mansa
Red
Elegant, fresh and well-balanced, with soft approachable tannins, our Maria Mansa red wine offers delicious notes of red fruits on the palate, typical of the wines from this region, in good harmony with the notes of wood. This balance gives us a high quality wine from the Douro, which is softer and more immediately accessible than the rest of the Noval range, ready for immediate consumption.
2017 was characterised by a cold, dry winter followed by an exceptionally hot and dry spring and summer. Apart from heavy rainfall (25 mm) on 6 July at Quinta do Noval, only 300 mm of rain fell since November 2016.
June was the hottest month since 1980, with temperatures reaching 42-44°C in the Douro Valley during a heat wave lasting from 7 to 24 June.
Due to these extreme weather conditions, all phases of the vine's growth were 15 to 20 days early compared to 2016.
The vines weathered the shortage of water and the high temperatures well. At the end of August the harvest looked very promising, with excellent sanitary conditions.
Harvest started much earlier than usual due to the weather: from 17 August for the white wines and 21 August for the reds and the Ports, lasting until 28 September, with high temperatures and a total absence of rain."Maria Mansa always combines the fruit and freshness provided by our excellent grapes and a contemporary vinification that extracts the unique character of the Douro "terroir" and its traditional regional varieties. The wine expresses elegant fruity notes and a smooth but well-balanced structure."
Carlos Agrellos, Technical DirectorMaria Mansa is a blended wine of noble Douro grape varieties:
50 % Tinta Roriz, 40 % Touriga Franca, 10 % Touriga Nacional.The wine is vinified at Quinta do Noval in stainless steel vats at a controlled temperature between 25 and 27°C. All the grapes are destemmed and the malolactic fermentation is also made in stainless steel vats.
The wine is aged in seasoned French oak barrels for 10 months.
16ºC-18ºC
