'Hi Loes, do you know how late you will be arriving tomorrow?’ Maarten asks. ‘The grapes are ripe, so we will be harvesting on Thursday and Friday. Rain is expected for Sunday, so it is important we have the grapes in by then.’ Maarten van Luyt is a Dutch winemaker who lives and works in the Douro region of Portugal. The coming week I am invited to help Maarten with the harvest and winemaking. For me, this is the first hands on experience on my wine adventure and I can’t wait to begin.
Spontaneous get togethers
I app him back that I have already arrived in Pinhao. ‘Oh really! I am on my way for a bite to eat in Pinhao. Wanna join me?’ he asks enthusiastically. And that is how the first spontaneous get together – of what would turn out to be many – is a fact.
Maarten has been living in the Douro valley for more than 15 years. This region is well-known for the port wines. Over the course of the years, Maarten slowly established his Quinta de Alaude (the Portugese translation of Van Luyt Estate) on truly the most unique location of this UNESCO world heritage site. When even the locals bring their business partners to come and check out your view, you know you have something special.
The next morning Maarten picks me up in Pinhao. ‘Today I will be welcoming a group of friends in my bed&breakfast.’ Maarten says. ‘They booked a port-tasting and a barbecue with me. That’s great, because you can join in if you like. This afternoon I want to start harvesting the syrah, my favourite grape variety. And later in the evening I am going to Natalia’s birthday. She is the wine-laboratory technician at Churchill’s. You can join me if you like.’ he says. ‘Wow, that sounds like an amazing day!’ I answer. ‘I’m in for everything!.’ …note to self: I will say yes to everything the coming week, take on the full immersion experience. Not in this lifetime will I get such a unique opportunity again, to learn about winemaking & wineculture with this enthusiastic and welcoming Dutch winemaker.
And so the harvest begins…or not?
On the way back home we stop at a coffee house for a cup of coffee, and Maarten greets his befriended winemakers along the way. ‘We harvest our grapes now, before the rain!’ Maarten says. The winemakers also seem to be nervously excited with the decision to harvest or to wait out the rain for their own grapes, just as Maarten is. We make a pitstop to buy a battery for the wine-thermometer at the local Chinese department store – which 5 minutes later turns out not to work (classic!). On the road back the car is filled with stories: Maarten is a storyteller. ‘When I was in Bordeaux to harvest, I met Carlos, a winemaker from Chile. We bought 3 bottles of wine per day, to become better winetasters. Of course, word travelled fast, and in no time the whole house was filled with people. That was a really fun time.’
We arrive at Maarten’s house. The view is majestic. I have a room with a life size panorama window, where I will be staying the coming week. Luckily, I have a few hours to land before we start harvesting, because I just cannot believe how incredibly beautiful it is here and how lucky I am to have met Maarten.
A few hours later we start harvesting the syrah grapes. Maarten is always a bit nervous at the beginning: is this the right moment to start? As soon as you start, there is no way back. Then the wine has to be made! But the grapes are ripe and rain is expected, so we go for it. Maarten explains how I should harvest. I am happy with that, because for me it is the first time to harvest grapes on this scale. There is approximately half a hectare of syrah grapes to harvest. ‘Cut away the grapes that are damaged, they can have rot or fungi.’ Maarten explains. ‘A few raisins in a bunch is no problem, but if it a whole row, cut them away. And above all: taste, taste, taste! If they taste good, we make wine from them.’
The 3 musketeers and don quijote
We’re about an hour in when Maarten’s phone rings. ‘Ah, have you arrived? We are in the vineyard… we are on our way!’ I hear him say. The group of friends – also known as the 3 musketeers and don quijote – has arrived. The men are from a village named Lieshout, situated in the Dutch province of Brabant. Maarten is from the same village, and I can hear the dialect marching in. Luckily, my family is also from Brabant, so I don’t feel completely lost. We settle ourselves down in Maarten’s living room. And while we enjoy the panoramic Douro-view, we taste the LUYT white wines. The 2021 vintage is light and fruity, the 2019 vintage is super aromatic and nicely aged.
The 3 musketeers and don quijote don’t have dinner plans yet, so we decide to go out to dinner together in Pinhao. On our plates: tender picanha steaks – a cut of beef taken from the top of the rump – and tuna tataki. In the glass: Bons Ares 2021, a minerally white wine from winemaker Ramos Pinto. We take the time to get to know each other better. The 3 musketeers go way back and have known each other since childhood. Don quijote is a real Rotterdammer, so as a girl from the neighbouring city Delft, I instantly feel at ease. Don quijote seems to be the organizer & facilitator of the group, and the musketeers add a great portion of humor, life questions, and the sensitive note. We talk about how common friends and family at home base Lieshout are doing, about the background of René, Pascal, Arthur, and Rob, about Maarten’s wine-adventures, and about my aspirations for the coming year.
Wine & hospital coffee
It is well towards 22.00 o’clock when Maarten and I depart to go to Quinta de Gricha, a winefarm liaised to Churchill’s, to celebrate the birthday of wine-technician Natalia. We walk into the winery. I instantly see the big granite bassins, called lagars in Portuguese, and men standing shoulder to shoulder in the bassins. They are treading the grapes with their feet, in order to extract the colour and the flavours out of the skins. This is an ancient tradition that is still very much alive in the Douro, and in many other wine regions of Portugal. Natalia hands me a Churchill’s shirt and black shorts and invites me in the lagar to come and help. And so I got lucky on the first day of my wine-adventure, because I am already able to tick a box on my bucket list: treading grapes in a traditional winery. I can feel a calmness coming over me, not only because the grape seeds are massaging my feet, but moreover because I am in the right place, with the right people, doing the right thing.
A few moments later Ricardo walks in. He is a good friend of Maarten and the winemaker at Churchill’s. He explains me how port is made and gives me a tour of the wine cellars. And at 12 o’clock, there is cake and singing for Natalia. After singing in Portuguese, Maarten and I sing Happy Birthday in Dutch. And I get lucky again on the first day of my wine-adventure, because I get to taste some of the most exclusive and unique wines and ports that Natalia’s winemaking friends have brought with them for the occasion, some of which will never reach the market. I feel like a VIP. Like an intern during my Medicine studies who can join the seniors at the table. But with one big difference: the wine in our glasses is so much better than the hospital-coffee.
Want to learn more about Maarten?
Do you want to learn more about Maarten’s wine estate, bed and breakfast, and wines? Take a look on his website: https://www.luytwines.com/
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