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We Launched a New Website!
WOW! A NEW WEBSITE!
<p>After well over two years trapped in development hell, we've finally launched our new website! Frankly, it took so long because it is way too ambitious. Please peruse the article below to learn how to navigate all 993 wines, 702 articles and 1,349 glossary terms available to you at the time of this writing. </p>
<p>There is so much new content to dig into. How about our <a href="http://louisdressner.com/harvest-reports?&ArticleSearch[year]=2019&ArticleSearch[country_id]=&ArticleSearch[producer_id]=">never before published 2019 harvest reports</a>? Or the new visit reports to <a href="http://louisdressner.com/articles/delphine-boulard-visit-2020">Delphine Boulard</a>, <a href="http://louisdressner.com/articles/vinyer-de-la-ruca-visit-june-2019">Vinyer de la Ruca</a> and <a href="http://louisdressner.com/articles/domaine-puech-reudon-visit">Puech-Redon</a>? <a href="http://louisdressner.com/producers/domaine%20de%20la%20p%C3%A9pi%C3%A8re">Profiles that have been updated for the first time since the 90's</a>? A new <a href="http://louisdressner.com/articles/denyse-louis-interview">Denyse Louis interview </a>(from 2017)? Actual technical information for the vast majority of the wines we import? It's all here!</p>
<p>Infinite thanks to Hallgeir Knutsen, Jason Matthew Lee, Thomas Hopkins and Carl Moberg for the countless hours spent working on this thing. I'm glad it's finally released and I can move on with my life!</p>
Article
How does The New Website Work?
This is very exciting stuff!
<p><u><strong>Desktop vs Mobile:</strong></u></p>
<p>We know it's 2020 and people use their phones a lot. So we've worked hard on ensuring the site functions well on mobile (especially compared to what it once was). Having said that, desktop is the recommended way of perusing the site.</p>
<p><u><strong>Glossary:</strong></u></p>
<p>At its core, this has always been a website written for wine professionals *attempting* to glean information on the wines we import (and hopefully see a picture of the vigneron's dog). Since the language can be so technical, we've added an <glossary term="glossary" title="1427">interactive glossary</glossary> to the text for those unfamiliar with the baffllingly complex world of wine terminology. Even if you're a seasoned pro, it will frankly teach you a thing or two. And if you'd rather read the content without the glossary, simply head to the main menu bar and turn it off. </p>
<p> <u><strong>Our Wines Section: </strong></u></p>
<p>In the new "Our Wines" section, we've offered a variety of filter categories for you to explore and discover all the cuvées we import. These filters can be combined together to narrow down results. If you hit a wall, simply erase one of the filters or clear all filters. </p>
<p><u><strong>Actual Information About the Wines:</strong></u></p>
<p>Speaking of the wines, the number one complaint we would get from customers was the lack of technical information on the wines themselves. It's not a coincidence that we spend the vast majority of our energy focusing on the people behind the wines and their dogs; it's what we dig about what we do.</p>
<p>Having said that, 95% of the wines we import now have EXTREMELY detailed technical information, dare I say the most technical anywhere on the internet. Please enjoy now while they are up to date, knowing that half of these will probably be totally wrong by next vintage. </p>
<p><u><strong>Search:</strong></u></p>
<p>If you know what producer or wine you are searching for, the search should quickly autofill what you need. Go ahead, give it a whirl.</p>
<p><strong><u>Hyperlinks:</u></strong></p>
<p>Everything on the website has a hyperlink now. This means you can easily share a specific producer page, article, wine or filter combination with anyone. </p>
<p><u><strong>Copy/Paste:</strong></u></p>
<p>If you need to copy/paste anything, the glossary needs to be turned off for the text to paste correctly. Also, if you are going to straight up use our writing verbatim, PLEASE credit us when doing so. Seems obvious but we see it happen all the time. </p>
<p><u><strong>A Shit-Ton of Written Content:</strong></u></p>
<p>The articles themselves can often be very long, and for this reason we developed a Propriety Pop Up System™ where you can easily scroll through various articles/wines and "pop out" to efficiently look at the rest of the content.</p>
<p>We've tried our best to pack as many dog pictures as possible in there, but the digital ink has been spilled: the cumulation of decades' worth of writings from Joe, Denyse, Kevin and Jules is here for you to read. A huge part of the work with this new website was to find better ways to condense and extract essential information you need without getting lost in all that BORING text. </p>
<p>We still think you should check it out. Don't worry, there are plenty of pictures. And you might even find the writing interesting. Or funny. Or both. </p>
Article
EXPLORE
Humus Interview
<p>This interview with Rodrigo Filipe took place over Skype in October, 2020.</p>
<p><strong>Tell me about the history of the farm and your involvement. </strong></p>
<p>My grandfather bought the farm in the 1960’s. He was making wine but used to sell it off. At the time, there was someone who would go to small villages and buy the wine from the farmers to sell to big houses in <glossary term="Porto" title="744">Porto</glossary> and <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Lisbon" title="1262">Lisbon</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Back then, there wasn’t a tradition of <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottling</glossary> wine, only a handful of large houses were doing it. </p>
<p>My father started <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottling</glossary> his own wine for the first time in 1988 from some old vineyards in the village and planted the oldest vines I have in 1991. But it was a hobby for him, and when the vines started producing higher quantities, he asked me to come help out. I was studying at university and had no intention to make this my career. But I came in 1999 to <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> and really enjoyed it. I never stopped.</p>
<p><strong>What did your father do?</strong></p>
<p>He was working as an agronomic engineer. </p>
<p><strong>And he planted all the vines? </strong></p>
<p>He planted the oldest vines I have, around three <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines. He planted <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Castelão" title="1228">Castelão</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Fernão Pires" title="1235">Fernão Pires</glossary> and <glossary term="Arinto" title="1233">Arinto</glossary> in 1991. </p>
<p><strong>How many hectares are there now and what did you plant?</strong></p>
<p>I have nine <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> now, so I planted six. In 2002, I planted <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Touriga Nacional" title="1229">Touriga Nacional</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> and <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Tinta Barroca" title="1403">Tinto Barroca</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> At the time I was planning on making more full-bodied reds; everyone was planting <glossary term="Touriga Nacional" title="1229">Touriga Nacional</glossary> saying it was wonderful, so I decided to try. For the <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> some people in the region were having really good results with it, so that motivated me. For <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Tinta Barroca" title="1403">Tinta Barroca</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> there was only one guy doing it and it was something new to the area, so I wanted to experiment.</p>
<p>I may plant other varieties at some point, but right now I’m happy with the work I’m doing with the grapes I have. For example I really like the <glossary term="Touriga Nacional" title="1229">Touriga</glossary> for the <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">rosé</glossary> and the <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Pétillant Naturel" title="778">pétillant naturel</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> is very consistent, always there for you when you have a problem with the others. </p>
<p><strong>What’s the breakdown of the land?</strong></p>
<p>I have about two <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Touriga Nacional" title="1229">Touriga Nacional</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> two <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> one of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Castelão" title="1228">Castelão</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> one of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Tinta Barroca" title="1403">Tinta Barroca</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> one <glossary term="Co-plantation" title="309">co-planted</glossary> in <glossary term="Fernão Pires" title="1235">Fernão Pires</glossary> and <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Arinto" title="1233">Arinto</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> one <glossary term="Co-plantation" title="309">co-planted</glossary> in <glossary term="Arinto" title="1233">Arinto</glossary> and <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sauvignon Blanc" title="927">Sauvignon Blanc</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> </p>
<p><strong>What was your first independent vintage and how were you working at that point? </strong></p>
<p>When I started, I didn’t know much about winemaking. All I had were the memories from when my father made wine in the 80’s and 90’s. In 1999, I assisted him in the winemaking. After that <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinification</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> I decided I needed to educate myself. So I started reading a lot and doing local workshops. Everyone was teaching me <glossary term="Conventional Farming" title="331">conventional</glossary> methods, so I was using all these techniques at the beginning. </p>
<p>But in the end I was not happy with the results. I started working <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary> in 2006, and progressively I stopped using <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Commercial Yeast" title="321">commercial yeasts</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Starting in 2010, I’ve made the wines without any <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Additive" title="1192">additives</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> </p>
<p><strong>What was the first vintage you commercialized?</strong></p>
<p>When I started I was using the name of the farm: Encosta da Quinta. In 2007, I was looking for a new name for a small lot of wines. My wife came up the Humus name. I really liked it: a short word with a nice meaning. For about three or four years I sold the wines under both names, but realized Humus was easier to identify and remember, so I shifted everything over to Humus.</p>
<p><strong>The farm is quite isolated. What was your inspiration to work organically and in a non-interventionist fashion?</strong></p>
<p>As you said, I’m quite alone out here. The only outside information I had was a contact with some friends in Spain. I saw that people where doing it in France and Spain and I loved the idea and wanted to see how it worked. I was on vacation in Spain in 2008 and visited a winery working this way. I came home with a lot of bottles and really loved the results. So that year I tried to make some wine with no <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">S02</glossary>; it tasted great and eventually I got the confidence to make my entire production this way. </p>
<p><strong>How would you define your work philosophy at this point? </strong></p>
<p>I’ve always tried to get the best from each grape but then I also tried making wines I like to drink. I started making <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">rosé</glossary> with the <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Touriga Nacional" title="1229">Touriga Nacional</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Maceration" title="610">macerating</glossary> the white skins on the <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">rosé</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> always trying to adapt my work…</p>
<p><strong>What’s your feelings on Portugal? Do you feel things are changing? Or are you really still alone in your work?</strong></p>
<p>It’s moving very slowly. The people who work in wine in Portugal are very conservative. They come from families that have been making wine for a long time, but got involved with with <glossary term="Industrial Agriculture" title="539">industrial practices</glossary> along the way. It’s hard for them to see things differently. Even moving to <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organic</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Agriculture" title="78">agriculture</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> people really don’t accept it. </p>
<p>With <span class="zalup"><span> <glossary term="Natural WIne" title="708">natural wines</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it’s even slower. I think it took off in France and Spain because people were coming from all over with open minds, but also a lot of them are first generation winemakers. In Portugal there tends to be family lineage. Everybody follows the same curriculums and applies it to their work. </p>
<p>It’s happening, but slowly.</p>
