Roquette & Cazes
Grape Growing & Winmaking
The grapes of Roquette & Cazes 2018 come from the Cima Corgo and Douro Superior subregions. They are hand-harvested and taken to the winery, where they are rigorously inspected on a sorting table. The grapes are then destemmed and gently crushed. Fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel conic vats.
Rack and return is performed during fermentation. This French technique means that the juice is drained from the fermenting vat leaving the cap behind. The fermenting juice is then pumped back over the cap, maximising the skin contact. The result is a concentrated, complex wine that is also elegant and stylish.
“The idea is to produce a great wine using Douro grape varieties, a wine with body and complexity, which combines the power of the sun in Portugal with the elegance and delicacy of Bordeaux.”
Jean-Michel CazesWine of the Week
Roquette e Cazes Douro 2018
Grapes
The Roquette & Cazes 2018 wine was made with Touriga Nacional (60%), Touriga Franca (25%) and Tinta Roriz (15%) grapes.
Ageing
The Roquette & Cazes 2018 wine was aged in French oak barrels, where it remained for approximately 18 months.
Tasting
Deep ruby colour. On the nose, excellent freshness and aromatic projection, where red fruits are well integrated with soft notes of spice. On the mouth, a wine of great elegance, which starts the tasting in a very harmonious way, evolving into a wine with excellent volume and structure composed of velvety textured tannins. A very captivating wine, which ends with excellent balance and persistence.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Decant and serve it at 16-18 ºC. It’s a good match for savoury meat and game dishes, as well as elaborate Italian food.
THE PROJECT
In 2002, the Roquette family from Quinta do Crasto (Douro) and the Cazes family from Château Lynch-Bages (Bordeaux) became partners to exchange knowledge and experience. The aim of the project has always been to produce great wines using French winemaking techniques in the privileged terroir of the Douro Valley. ROQUETTE & CAZES it’s a wine that has taken the teachings of its elder brother XISTO – ROQUETTE & CAZES, the first wine of this venture. It is equally elegant, fine and with an intense finish. It has, however, a more extended bottle ageing period in order to be ready to drink when released.
EXTRAORDINARY TERROIR
The Douro Valley is a unique place with steep slopes and deep valleys. Here, the landscape is made up of cultivated slopes where viticulture plays a prominent role. Cultivated on uninterrupted terraces and supported by low walls, the vineyards draw the landscape to perfection.
MOST RECOGNIZED VARIETY
The Douro wine region has a great diversity of local varieties. Being the best red grape variety in Portugal, Touriga Nacional offers an excellent bouquet that expresses the combination of blackberry and elderberry and imbues the wines with complexity and elegance. Touriga Franca gives the wines their fragrant character and persistent fruitiness, while Tinta Roriz offers original aromas.
About the Brand
ROQUETTE
ROQUETTE
& CAZES
The Roquette & Cazes project is above all a meeting of two friends: Jorge Roquette from Quinta do Crasto and Jean-Michel Cazes from Château Lynch-Bages
The Story
Read how it all started
Vinification
The process
QUINTA DA CABREIRA
The Location
QUINTA DO MECO
The Location
The Story
The Roquette & Cazes project is above all a meeting of two friends: Jorge Roquette from Quinta do Crasto and Jean-Michel Cazes from Château Lynch-Bages .
In 2002, the two families decided to create a company to produce great wines that were marked by the natural characteristics of the Douro and the experience of the Cazes who have been making wines in Bordeaux for about a century.
A wine-growing adventure
“To make a great wine with Douro grape varieties, a wine that shows structure and complexity, that has the power and sun of Portugal combined with the elegance of Bordeaux”, said Jean-Michel Cazes in the context of this adventure.
There were two major challenges in this project:
– respecting the characteristics of the Douro so as not to lose the local touch;
– join two teams of winemakers who speak different languages and work 1000 km apart.
This is how Xisto – Roquette & Cazes 2003 was born , the first wine of this project, launched at Vinexpo in 2005. At the same fair, the result of the Vinexpo “Découvertes 2005” Jury includes Xisto – Roquette & Cazes 2003 in the «Top Ten» and in the «Les 3 Exceptionnels» category , making this wine a world revelation.
Later, and after three successful editions of Xisto – Roquette & Cazes , the two families decided to create another wine. Thus, Roquette & Cazes 2006 was born , a wine that would borrow from the teachings of its older brother, Xisto – Roquette & Cazes , to be equal in elegance, finesse and depth of mouth, but to which they would give a longer aging period. bottled to make it more ready to drink when it hits the market.
With the birth of this new wine, Jorge Roquette and Jean-Michel Cazes take the decision to reposition the oldest wine of the project, Xisto – Roquette & Cazes , starting to bottle it only in years when the fruit proves to be of exceptional quality. . The idea is to raise the level of Xisto – Roquette & Cazes even further , making it a true icon of the Douro valley alongside the Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa and Quinta do Crasto Vinha da Ponte wines . The amount to be bottled of the new Xisto – Roquette & Cazes will always be very small, not exceeding 3,000 bottles. When will a new Shale come out – Roquette & Cazes? It's still too early to know.
Adapting knowledge to natural conditions to make great wines
The entire process at Roquette & Cazes begins in the vineyard. Periodically, the winemaker of the Cazes family , Daniel Llose , travels to the Douro to visit the vineyards accompanied by Manuel Lobo , winemaker at Quinta do Crasto .
Vinification
The vinification is a joint process between the two winemakers and entirely carried out in the Quinta do Crasto cellar . To preserve the characteristics of the Douro, but integrate them with elegance, they created a specific vinification system, with gentle pumping over and prolonged macerations, thus achieving intense, well-structured, elegant wines, with their own personality and well marked by the “terroir” . .
Vineyards with different locations in the Douro valley are used. The main grape varieties are Touriga Nacional , Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz .
For the aging, French oak barrels from the supplier of Château Lynch-Bages are used . The aging in the bottle is then carried out in the Quinta do Crasto warehouses , at controlled temperature.
QUINTA DA CABREIRA
Following the investments made and in accordance with the planned growth plan, the Roquette family acquired Quinta da Cabreira, located in the Douro Superior. It has 140 hectares, of which 114 are occupied by vineyards. At Quinta da Cabreira, new vineyards were implemented, using mainly the most traditional Douro varieties – Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca. The entire vineyard area is covered by a drip irrigation system, which, complemented by its own weather station, makes it possible to cope with the drier and harsher climate that is characteristic of the Douro Superior. The production of Quinta da Cabreira is intended to complement the production of Quinta do Crasto and to produce the wines of the Roquette & Cazes project, thus allowing to optimize the level of use of the wine cellars that the company has. With a front of 2.2 km with the Douro River, Quinta da Cabreira is located in the parish of Castelo Melhor, a short distance from Quinta do Meco deJean-Michel Cazes .
QUINTA DO MECO
During 2006 and 2007, Jean-Michel Cazes purchased 42 hectares of land, in place of Meco, parish of Castelo Melhor, municipality of Foz Côa. This property located on the left bank of the Douro River, next to Ribeira de Aguiar, has an excellent exposure oriented to the East and North and is the result of a long acquisition process with twelve different owners.
