Taboadella is located in the heart of the Dão Demarcated Region, in Silvã de Cima, in the sub-region of Castendo. This unique stretch of 42 hectares of vines, between Vale do Pereiro and Vale do Sequeiro, marked by a triangular plateau between 400 and 530 metres above sea level, is characterised by gentle slopes towards the southwest quadrant, with a privileged solar exposure to the south and west.
The mountainous massif protects the vineyard from the Atlantic climate and the harsh winds of Spain, resulting in a transition climate between the coast and the apparently temperate continental zone. The autumn equinox brings a marked change to the weather, and generally there are heavy rains and sometimes frost in late Spring.
The traditional vineyards are not irrigated, using a sustainable rainfed viticulture system, which maintains traditional qualities and typicity in the 26 parcels in an integrated production mode, characterised by a planting density of 3500 plants per hectare and a median production of 4000 kg per hectare.
The heart of Taboadella lies in the old grape varieties and in the mother vines: Jaen, Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro and Tinta Pinheira, which have given rise to new cuttings throughout their lives, contributing to the original plants, derived from very resistant vines and perfectly adapted to the terroir.
In the 1980s, the vineyard was partially replanted, introducing new grape varieties such as Tinta Roriz and Encruzado, Cerceal-Branco and Bical. Today, the average age of the vines is 30 years, but some are over 100 years old.
Tinta Roriz – 26,7%
Touriga Nacional – 19,06%
Jaen – 15,7%
Alfrocheiro – 6,63%
Tinta Pinheira – 3,62%
Baga – 0,64%
Experimental Tests: 0,44%
Centuries-old vines (field blend) – 1,73%
Cerceal – 2,38%
Bical – 4,72%
Encruzado – 18,38%
One of the most talked-about themes in today’s world of wine growing, associated to the concept of terroir, is the constitution and physical characteristics of the soil and the way in which both interact with other parameters, such as topography, solar exposure and altitude.
Like other terroirs in the world’s most important wine regions, Taboadella benefits from tremendous interaction between the granite subsoil and its topography, with coarse elements associated to the steep slopes, that enable fast and deep drainage and flow, and “effective" drainage of water from the soils, brought by the rains (15-20 mm) in the months of July, August and September even before the harvest, which do not have a major influence on the quality of production.
With exceptional edaphoclimatic conditions, in Taboadella there are almost always two seasons with frost: after the autumn equinox that registers a sharp drop in temperature following the harvest and another, usually, just before the spring with early rains. That is why pruning is only carried out after the frost, usually in March, thereby slightly delaying the vegetative cycle of the plant. At the end of September and the first half of October, the grapes are harvested entirely by hand and the harvest is always “à la carte”, according to the maturity of each grape variety in each plot.
The Taboadella vineyard is planted in a porphyroid granitic soil, with easy weathering, which results in poorly evolved soils, with low water retention capacity and, normally, with a low arable layer. This soil composition results from the alteration of two types of Paleozoic granites: the oldest corresponds to a relatively altered granite, with fine to medium granularity, and the other is a coarse granite, including the dominant presence of centimetre-sized feldspar crystals.
This genetic and historic inheritance at Taboadella, with vines planted in these soils at 400 - 530 m of altitude, gives slow maturation and great elegance, complexity and freshness; a unique character, that only Taboadella can confer on its own vines.
Planted in soils at 400 - 530 m of altitude
Complexity and freshness, a unique character
3,4 ha Sandy and strtified, with fragments, of granite. Brown colour.
4,71 ha Sand-silty and stratified. Brown colour.
3,13 ha Sand-silty , with horizons. Dark brown colour.
3,85 ha Sandy, homogeneous. Grey to brownish colour,.
0,79 ha Granular sandy . Brown to grey colour.
13,7 ha Sandy, coarse, with fragments of feldspar. Brown colour.
12,36 ha Silt-sandy, thick. Brownish grey colour.