Maria Mansa
Red
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- 2017
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.
Characteristics of the vintage
2022 will stand out as a remarkably dry year with unprecedented weather conditions in our region. Nonetheless, this growing season also showed the remarkable resilience of the Douro's vineyards and grape varieties.
The rainfall recorded at Quinta do Noval during the viticultural year was 364mm, 276mm below the 1970/2000 average. The weather conditions were favourable during flowering in May and during fruit set. With a high number of bunches, a good harvest was expected.
From the 7th to the 15th of July a heatwave brought daily temperatures above 40°C, even reaching 45,5°C at Quinta do Noval - and it was on July 15th that Pinhão recorded Portugal's highest ever temperature at 47°C. From July 30th to August 10th, we experienced another heatwave with temperatures above 40°C.
The high temperatures, combined with low relative humidity, contributed greatly to the optimum health of the grapes. We experienced very little vine related diseases and most plots were surprisingly green and free from water stress. The low disease pressure was clearly verified by the small amount of eliminated bunches at grape sorting in our wineries during harvest, and it also translated into more wine produced.Harvest
On August 25th we were already harvesting red grapes for Port and red dry wines. The dry conditions throughout the season along with low water reserves restricted the vine's growth which in turn produced smaller bunches with small berries. The wines have excellent colour with perfectly ripe fruit on the nose.
Rain between the 12th and 14th of September (28.4mm) caused a sharp drop in temperatures and improved the final ripening of the grapes. We decided to pause the harvest, giving the grapes a few days to dry, improve phenolic ripening and gain more sugars.
The harvest lasted 37 days and finished on September 27th. The total grape production at Quinta do Noval was 705 pipes, down 5% from 2021.Vinification
This wine is made with hand picked grapes, manual sorting and complete destemming of the grape bunches. Selected yeasts are used to master the fermetation cycle.
The fermentation is done in stainless steel vats at a controlled temperature between 25 and 27°C, followed by malolactic fermentation.Blend
40% Touriga Francesa, 25% Tinta Roriz, 20% Touriga Nacional, 10% Tinto Cão, 5% Sousão
Maturing
The wine is aged for 11 months in French oak barrels with a capacity of 225 litres, from barrels of one or two vintages.
Tasting notes
Maria Mansa Tinto 2022 is an elegant wine, with complex textures and superb flavours. It shows a vibrant red colour, with fresh and fruity aromas. The palate is exquisite and smooth, with fruity flavours on a lingering finish.
Carlos Agrellos - Technical Director - July 2024
Bottling date: June 17th 2024Serving temperature
16ºC-18ºC
Wine Analyse
Alcohol content:
13.5% vol.
Residual sugar:
1g/l
Total acidity:
5.2g/l
pH:
3.63
