Text João Pedro de Carvalho | Translation Bruno Ferreira

We’re back to famous Casa Agrícola José de Sousa (Reguengos de Monsaraz), property of José Maria da Fonseca, from where comes this new release that goes by the name Ripanço Private Selection. This wine results from mixing tradition and history with modern technology, the particularity resides on the usage of a technique that dates back to romans (ripanço). This so called technique consists on manually destemming the grapes, with the help of a ripanço table which is made of several wooden slats. The workers’ hand movement, gently pressing the bunches loosens the grapes and separates them from the stem as you can see in the video further below. This was probably the first technique of grapes’ destemming that allowed to avoid the presence of the stem’s hard tannins which can originate an excessive and unwanted bitterness in the wine.

Video provided by José Maria da Fonseca

The wine was made from a blend of Syrah (48%), Aragonês (32%) and Alicante Bouschet (20%) grape varieties’. It aged for 6 months in new French and American oak barrels. What stands out in the outright is the aroma full of ripe fruits, a whole lot of black gooseberry and plum. Evolves after some time in the glass and gets some complexity with aromatic herbs, express coffee and a background of well blended in vanilla. The whole is fresh and loose, with some nerve giving it viability to accompany some of the more spiced dishes, like, for example Lasagne Bolognese. Moreover it’s an uncomplicated red with good mouth presence, full of freshness, fruit bursting of flavor until the finish where jam and spice expend from us.

Contacts
QUINTA DA BASSAQUEIRA – ESTRADA NACIONAL 10,
2925-542 VILA NOGUEIRA DE AZEITÃO, SETUBAL, PORTUGAL
Tel: (+351) 212 197 500
E-mail: INFO@JMF.PT
Site: www.jmf.pt