Porta Caelı Vıneyards
Vineyard & Regıon
Our region, which has a temperate climate, is located in the Aegean part of Thrace, which has soil layers older than millions of years, and within the borders of the historical national park. Since our vineyards are located in the protected area of the Historical Gallipoli peninsula, we can grow viticulture using clean natural resources without soil and environmental pollution. With the effect of the pine forests surrounding the vineyards and the Canakkale wind, the Aegean Sea climate creates a natural microclimate (air currents) and offers an excellent terroir that allows the grapes to mature slowly. Eceabat is a special region that can be evaluated within the scope of good agricultural practices with its geographical location and arable land. In this context, detailed water, soil, leaf and pesticide analyzes are carried out periodically by independent supervisory authorities in our vineyards to ensure sustainable viticulture without creating environmental pollution. The effect of the sea, the coolness of the forest and the clayey, sandy, gravelly and limestone soil structure combined with the wind provide ideal growing conditions for our wine varieties. By making Château-Style viticulture, that is, by ensuring that the grapes are processed into wine at the facility inside the vineyards, we prevent the grapes from losing quality and aroma during the journey. On the other hand, the traces and legacy of the story with Dionysus, the god of wine in our region, continue to inspire us.
Harvesting
The correct timing of the grape harvest has an important place in the quality of the wine. The harvesting season, the busiest and most critical time of the year for winemakers, usually takes place between August and October.
As Caeli Winery, we harvest our grapes by hand in order to minimize mechanical damage, and at the same stage we eliminate unhealthy bunches. We harvest early in the morning and pack the grapes in small crates and transport them to the winery next to our vineyards. After harvest, we process the grapes for 1 day in cold storage at 5 ° C. There are two important reasons why we keep our grapes in cold storage for 1 day after harvest and process them at 5 °C.
The first of these is to prevent the grapes harvested from causing a decrease in the must quality and aroma structure during transportation, even if they have had a short journey, and to keep the aromas alive and fresh.
Another important reason is to bring the harvested grapes to the ideal temperature before fermentation and to prevent a sudden heat intervention. Because sudden temperature changes reduce the quality of the must again.
- 170Hectare Vineyard Area
- 10.000Saplings / hectare
- %80Red Grapes
- %20White grapes
Grapes
During the establishment of our vineyards, the vines found in different vineyards of the Bordeaux region of France and which had the best results in the past years were cloned, and laser planting was performed by selecting special clones that could best adapt to our soil structure and terroir. 80% of our vineyards are black grapes and 20% are white grape varieties.
Our black grape varieties are “Cabernet Sauvignon”, “Merlot”, “Cabernet Franc” and “Petit Verdot” and our white grape varieties are “Sauvignon Blanc”, “Chardonnay” and “Viognier”.
Teruar
The fertile soil in our vineyards generally has sandy loam soil structure and high drainage structure, and the soil pH varies between 6-8. There is no need for irrigation in our vineyards due to the fine and high-quality clay structure approximately 3-4 m below the soil level. According to the meteorological data averages of the last 50 years, the annual precipitation in our vineyards is 600-700 mm. This amount of precipitation ensures that the water need is ideally met by natural precipitation without the need for irrigation. Although our soil structure is sandy loam, there are kilometers of drainage system under our vineyards, and therefore precipitation over 750 mm does not reduce the quality of the wine we produce. Since our vineyards are planted by calculating the maximum exposure to the sun, the maximum amount of ºBrix is obtained.
With the effect of the soil structure, the climate of the Aegean Sea and the winds of Çanakkale, the grapes mature gradually and become suitable for high quality wine production.