Adega Cartuxa [Cartuxa Winery] launches new 2015 Pêra-Manca red wine vintage

Produced only when the requirements of exceptional quality are met, Eugénio de Almeida Foundation presents Pêra-Manca red 2015, the latest vintage of its iconic wine, in a limited edition of 44,000 bottles. Additionally, this launch shall be celebrated with the release of a new Pêra-Manca Club website.

Resulting from the selection of the best grapes from selected parcels of vineyards with over 35 years of the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation, the Pêra-Manca red 2015 was made from the usual Aragonez and Trincadeira varieties. Being always very low yields, the year 2015, allowed to obtain a quantity of grapes of exceptional quality and consequent production of Pêra-Manca red above the usual standard of excellence. This exhibits a deep garnet colour and a complex and intense aroma, reminiscent of dried plums and ripe strawberries. It also reveals balsamic and “spicy” notes, as well as liquorice, rockrose and tobacco leaf. In the mouth, it impresses by its strong freshness, and by being elegant and very concentrated.

The vegetative cycle of the vineyard took place under conditions of lack of humidity in the soil, leading to a weak vegetative vigour of the vines, as well as to the formation of very small berries, which presented an excellent relation between skin and pulp. The mild temperatures experienced during the maturation period allowed a slow evolution until the harvest. All these conditions led to a very balanced production at all levels, highlighting the concentration in sugars, acidity, phenolic compounds, and even quantity.

From the winemaking point of view, a pre-fermentative skin maceration was carried out in order to enhance the complexity of this wine. Fermentation took place during 18 months in French oak vats, with a controlled temperature of 27ºC and manual pumping over, followed by 48 months in the bottle in the cellars of the Santa Maria Scala Coeli Monastery. To ensure that the authenticity of these wines is a true expression of their unique and exclusive terroir, the alcoholic fermentations of these varieties were carried out with indigenous yeasts, and long post-fermentative skin macerations were subsequently carried out so that the bouquet of this wine is as complex as its history.

“The Pêra-Manca red 2015, due to its concentration in tannins, has completed a slightly longer bottle ageing than usual, so that, at this moment, it presents itself at a point of evolution that allows, right now, to show its high potential, leaving to the years to come the possibility to accompany an endless set of nuances that only great wines make possible,” says Engineer Pedro Batista, Wine Director of the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation and Winemaker of Adega Cartuxa [Cartuxa Winery].

Convenient and exclusive, the new Pêra-Manca Club website is also launched, inviting you to be part of a unique experience. Offering exclusive advantages, the Pêra-Manca Club shall enable access to private events and unique moments in the Adega Cartuxa [Cartuxa Winery].

Keeping the innovation strategy of Adega Cartuxa [Cartuxa Winery], each bottle of Pêra-Manca red 2015 will continue to present a security system that allows the consumer to ensure its authenticity. The system consists of a unique code, associated with the use of a holographic image and a control QR Code of Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda [Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office], which allows this entity to make the seal traceability, incorporated in the capsule of the bottle, which can be validated on the new Pêra-Manca Club website, thus giving the guarantee of acquisition of an original bottle.