The birth of a Bouchard project at Quinta do Tedo! Made from French oak, with a dimension of 4.2 m high x 4 m wide x 8 cm thick (14' x 13' x 3"), each door weighing close to 1000 kgs or 1 ton! Comprised of 2 massive operable doors, to include a "visitor's" door, with an gracious "sunray" transom, our 55-m deep cave is now protected from Douro Valley climatic extremes.
Excavation started in late 2016, and finally the fruits of our labours.
This is to date the first cave, carved out of schist in Douro Valley (due to Unesco new building restrictions), perfect natural conditions for barrel, tank and amphora ageing for our Portos and Douro DOC red wines.
Close to a year of strenuous mental, physical and creative work by 3 Burgundian masters, who answered Vincent's request "there is a hole to close"! One of the professional artisans is Vincent's brother, Antonin (center in below article), a brilliant museum-grade furniture restorer and maker, together with Emmanuel Joussot, another accomplished furniture maker, and Jean-Yves Bouillot, an equally talented metal forger. This magnificent portal was a challenge, and is an overwhelming success!
Each massive piece of wood was planed by hand. For the lock Antonin restored a centuries-old lock and made a new key, in the same medieval style. The finished door was assembled, then dissasembled for the transport from France to Portugal, then reassembled sur place. In the blistering summer heat many French and Portuguese hands pushed it up into place!
A monumental artistic creation! Merci Antonin, Emmanuel e Jean-Yves!