Some years we are very lucky in the Douro and 2008 was one of those years. We had a very wet and stormy April (144 mm at Bomfim, the 16 year average is 66 mm) which caused quite severe desavinho*. May was also quite damp, bringing the same problem to the vineyards above 350 metres that flower late, so fruit set over the whole region was low. But the next three months were very dry although cool. With the low winter rain, April excluded, we would have been in real trouble if the customary Douro heat had appeared. No vines can survive the blazing Douro summer heat unless there are strong reserves of water. For some bizarre but thankful reason the real heat never came. August was windy, but brought none of the hot easterly winds that come off the Spanish plain and bring days of burning temperatures (there is a local saying; ‘Neither a good wind nor a good wedding comes from Spain’). The wind blew consistently from the west, up the valley from the Atlantic 100 kms away. Our viticulturalist wrote at the time ‘this wind is kinder since cooler and damper winds are less likely to dry out the vines or cause them to shut their stomata and close down photosynthesis’. Total rainfall in August was just under 5 mm, less than a third of the average and the mean temperatures at Pinhão was 23.7˚ C, one degree cooler than normal, the same as in July.