Constantino Ramos works mainly in Minho, producing super-fresh, often saline wines, both white and red. This time I was particularly impressed by Juca 2024, where chestnut flowers are used instead of sulphur. Dark in colour with a faint bluish tone, the wine shows aromas of both red and darker berries. On the palate it is juicy and lively, with fresh acidity, a lightly saline touch and an extra layer of complexity. The finish is long and energetic.
At Materramenta – where Constantino also consults, working with Luís Vasco – the focus was on wines from three different Azores islands. I chose Materramenta D.O. Biscoitos 2024 a verdelho and arinto dos açores blend from Terceira, where the project has its headquarters. Pale straw in colour, it offers aromas of ripe apple and citrus. The palate is bright and lively, with good acidity and a clear saline note that reflects the Atlantic surroundings.
From Lisboa wine region, Quinta da Serradinha – located near Leiria in the northern part of the region, in the limestone hills of Encostas d’Aire – and António Marques da Cruz showed a range of stylish wines in different colours. Serradinha Branco 2024, made from encruzado and arinto, had 18 hours of skin contact, was fermented in barrels and aged ten months on the lees. The result is golden in colour, with aromas of yellow apple and herbs. The palate is mouthfilling and textured, combining weight with freshness. A second version with a higher proportion of arinto (around 65%) showed a little more acidity and tension.
From the Douro, Grau Baumé – represented here by Hugo Mateus and based around Peso da Régua – presented Undo Alvarinto 2021, a blend of alvarinho and arinto. The wine is light and aromatic, with citrus and floral notes on the nose. On the palate it shows moderate weight, lively acidity and a clean, refreshing finish.
Tiago Sampaio, also from the Douro (and not far away, from around Alijó), poured Uivo Chronológico Ancestral 2018, a pét-nat made from pinot noir. Many people claim that pét-nat cannot age, but Tiago is keen to demonstrate the opposite. The wine is light golden in colour, with subtle brioche notes and fine, well-integrated bubbles. The palate is dry, complex and gastronomic – the kind of sparkling wine that works beautifully at the table.
Finally, from Vidigueira in Alentejo, Natus and Hamilton Reis presented Natus 2023. Vidigueira is known as a white-wine enclave in a region dominated by reds. This roupeiro-antão vaz-gouveio blend shows a light golden colour, with a deep and layered aroma profile. On the palate it is broad and complex, combining ripeness with freshness and a long, balanced finish.
Simplesmente Vinho offered this year for the first time three special tastings. One of them was dedicated to Quinta do Infantado and the release of a limited edition 50 year old tawny. The festival’s own João Roseira and his son Álvaro, now responsible winemaker, guided us through around ten wines and samples, before they presented the new tawny.
João Roseira presenting the rare tawny
The release marks 50 years since the Portuguese Revolution, which ended the dictatorship and ushered in democracy. This special edition not only commemorates that historic moment but also pays tribute to João’s father, Luís Roseira, who was instrumental in Quinta do Infantado’s pioneering shift to estate-bottling.
The Roseira family has owned and managed Quinta do Infantado for over a century. In 1979, Luís Roseira, born on February 23, 1924, together with his brother António, led the estate’s groundbreaking decision to bottle its own wines—breaking with the tradition of selling bulk Port to the large houses in Vila Nova de Gaia. This made Quinta do Infantado the first independent producer to bottle its own Ports in the Douro region.
50 Year Old Tawny Luís Roseira(Quinta do Infantado)
Deep mahogany with greenish hue towards the rim. Intense and complex bouquet with layers of dried fruits (figs, dates, and raisins), with caramelized nuts, toffee and nutmeg, along with hints of orange peel and coffee. Concentrated on the palate, with a rich texture balanced by vibrant acidity, with flavours that mirror the aromas, alongside a subtle minerality. The finish is extremely long, with a dry, nutty aftertaste and delicate bitter notes like dark chocolate and espresso. This 50-year-old Tawny Port from Quinta do Infantado is a masterpiece. It reminds me of an exceptional old PX sherry, but it’s less sweet. It has multiple possibilities for pairing with food. But it is also a wine for meditation.
Tonight at Tempo wine bar in Sandnes, Norway we were served this wine. This is Niepoort’s interpretation of his fascination for Bourgogne. It’s made from local grape varieties, but it’s light coloured and elegant, and clearly in line with the model.
Whole bunches were lightly foot trodden in granite lagares, before a short extraction. The fermentation was initially carried out in lagares and then the process was completed with 15 months ageing in used barriques. The grapes are tinta roriz and touriga franca
Charme 2022(Niepoort)
Bright ruby colour. Aroma of red fruits (raspberry, strawberry), flowers, graphite, earth. Smooth in the mouth with fine tannins, aromatic herbs and slight caramel nuances, and a long aftertaste provided by the acidity. It’s an elegant wine, but due to a slight wood presence even better in a couple of years from now.
Last Thursday I popped into the Bar Douro (London Bridge) and had a few Portuguese wines. One of them was Folias de Baco‘s irresistible pét nat.
But first, Bar Douro opened in 2016 with the aim of bringing a piece of the authentic Portugal to London. Four years later another opened in the City. Max, the owner, is in fact in the family of Churchill’s port, and he spent his childhood days in Portugal. The whole staff takes pride in its passion for the country.
Michael, general manager, in front of a blue and white tiled wall
I have met and visited winemaker Tiago Sampaio several times. He is located near Alijó, one of the coolest places in the Douro. It’s him who runs Folias de Baco, and the family also have a wine bar of that name in Porto. Search the blog for more.
This wine is made with the old method, in French “méthode ancestrale”, means it is bottled with some amount of residual sugar left in the wine, so it can continue fermenting and producing carbon dioxide (which creates the bubbles). The yeasts give the natural cloudiness.
Wine waiter Oliver pours our pet nat
Uivo Pt Nat Branco 2022(Folias de Baco)
Pale yellow colour, cloudy with discrete bubbles. Aroma of white flowers, peach and grapefruit. Medium bodied, lively and energetic, with a fresh acidity and a saline touch.
After Simplesmente Vinho I visited Luis Seabra’s winery in the Douro. Luis himself was sick in bed, but Gonçalo Pinto was there. He showed us around, my Brazilian collegue Didu Russo and me. And we got to taste an impressive range of wines.
Véu de Xisto 2015 was one. This wine I tasted during the 2021 edition of the fair. Véu signifies that it has spent three years under a veil of flor. It was moved to stainless steel for another 2 years’ rest before bottling. The grapes are rabigato 70%, côdega do larinho 15% and the rest gouveio, from 30 year old vines in the Meda region of Douro Superior.
Véu de Xisto 2015(Luis Seabra)
Golden colour. Aroma of yeasts, flowers, iodine, orange. Full and rounded in the mouth, good acidity and salt, with an attractive oxidative touch. A lot of energy and character.
I had met Pedro Coelho several times at the Simplesmente Vinho fair in Porto, and I have tasted a few wines now and then. This year I took the opportunity to taste the whole range. Which I don’t regret. I knew his white Douro wines were extraordinary. But his rosé and reds were outstanding too.
Pedro uses only old vineyards, always spontaneous fermentations and minimal intervention. He picks early to obtain the best possible natural acidity, and the alcohol levels are generally low. A vividness and vibrancy shines through in all his wines. The Pormenor winery is located in Barcos on the left bank in Cima Corgo, but he sources grapes from high altitudes in several parts of the Douro.
I could have picked anything for this column, but I finally chose a quite unusual white. A de Arinto is exactly that, a varietal arinto from 40 year old vines in granite with clay – at 650 meters altitude in the Alijó area. It underwent a 12 hours maceration in neutral oak with whole bunches, before a gentle extraction. It clocks in at 12% alcohol.
A de Arinto 2022(Pormenor)
Pale yellow colour. Aroma of mature lemon, some apricot and minerals. Lively, fresh acidity with a waxy, spicy fruit, and a long, salty finish. It is balanced and appealing now, but has an acidity to keep.
Last week I visited Mateus Nicolau de Almeida in Foz Côa, in the Douro Superior. This is really the land of rabigato. One of his rabigato whites I was coincidentally offered at the Prova wine bar in the center of Porto some days later.
Mateuscomes from a family that has made wine for several generations, and in 2015 he set up his own project. He is dedicated to explore the characteristics of the terroir. This can be seen in the Eremitas project, that comprises three wines, all from the same variety and made in exactly the same way, but reflecting their respective terroirs.
Amon de Kelia originates from a vineyard planted in moderately deep quartz soils at an altitude of 500 metres. The grapes are macerated in granite for 3 hours. Then they pressed in a vertical press, and the must is racked by gravity into cement in an underground cellar, where it ferments spontaneously without temperature control.
Eremitas Amon de Kelia 2022(Mateus Nicolau de Almeida)
Light straw. Discrete aromatics with yellow fruits, flowers and a mineral touch. More expressive in the mouth, with good volume, it’s fruity, fresh, and with a nicely integrated acidity.
Tiago Sampaio is a driving force on the modern wine scene of the Douro. The Folias de Baco project was started in 2007, and today he is recognized as an innovative winemaker deep rooted in the traditions of the area.
The name Curtido implies that this is an orange wine, in Portugal usually called curtimenta. It’s made from moscatel galego planted on a blend of schist and granite soils. It was harvested by hand in early September with extensive vineyard sorting and two weeks maceration time. Fermentation in stainless steel using indigenous yeasts. Not fined or filtered.
Uivo Pt Nat Curtido 2021(Folias de Baco)
Yellow-orange, cloudy. Aromatic, flowery with apricot and citrus peel. Dry mouth-feel, only slightly fizzy, lovely citrussy acidity, good concentration and an intense aftertaste.
This summer at Porto’s Simplesmente… Vinho fair I met Miguel Morais and Filipa Silva of Quinta da Costa do Pinhão. I tasted their splendid range of wines, all from the Favaios area, by the Pinhão river, a subsidiary of the Douro.
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Miguel and Filipa this summer in Porto
Among them was this red, that is now available in my local shop. It comes from a scistous vineyard at 300-450 meters elevation, between 35 and 45 years old. The composition is touriga nacional 40%, touriga franca 30% and tinta roriz 30%. The grapes were foot-trodden and fermented in traditional lagares. It was aged 12 months in French barrels.
Gradual 2017(Quinta da Costa do Pinhão)
Dark cherry red. Aroma of red and dark fruits (cherry, blackberry, plum), black pepper, herbs, licorice and some animal tones. In the mouth it’s quite full, with integrated wood, good acidity, still some tannins, and with a hint of tobacco along with the fruits. A tasty Douro, still with ageing capacity.
Price: Medium
Food: I had it with leg of lamb, but goes with a variety of tasty meat, casseroles and more
Simplesmente… Vinho is an independent wine festival held annually in Porto. It’s for artisans and family businesses, for wines that respect terroir and tradition. As the organizers say, “sincere wines with a healthy dose of madness and poetry”.
Nowadays it’s held on the first weekend of July, in the open air of the gardens of the Casa Cor de Rosa of the Faculty of Architecture of Porto (FAUP). This tenth edition featured 101 vignerons from Portugal and Spain.
This year I tasted quite randomly in no special order. I will still try to categorize them for you. It is always a pleasure to taste the wines of producers like Tiago Sampaio, Antonio Madeira, Niepoort, Quinta de Carolina and Quinta do Infantado. However, here I will highlight some of the producers that I didn’t know that well. Yes, I knew about them and I had tasted some wines, but this was the first time I tasted their whole range. Three to watch were Quinta da Pôpa, Quinta da Poeta (both Douro) and Quinta do Escudial (Dão). There were also a couple of discoveries on a trip to the Vinho Verde region. These you can read about in a forthcoming article.
Muxagat was created in 2002 by the Almeida and Lopes families, in the village Muxagata of Douro Superior. Today Muxagat has its own winery in Mêda, where most of the grapes are sourced. It’s a minimal intervention project, also without addition of yeast. Susana Lopes and her family, with the help of Ana Silva, resident winemaker, and consultant Luis Seabra, make stylish, fresh wines in a region famous for heavier stuff.
Susana Lopes and Ana Silva, Muxagat
I liked the whole range, from the fresh white wines (one of them an off-dry riesling), via the elegant light extracted rosé to the various shades of red. Here come a few of the best. Tinta Barroca 2021: Young colour with violet hints; mature dark and wild fruits (cherry, blackberry), flowers; luscious with fresh acidity – a serious glou-glou wine! The Tinta Francisca 2017 had more developed colour, an earthy, mineral aroma with red berries and white pepper, and a lightly structured palate. I also liked their regular Tinto 2017, a classic and complete red. Vale Cesteiros 2018, from older vines, is dark in colour with wild fruits (blackberry) and some balsamic; potent, still elegant, and with an integrated acidity. Cisne 2015 and 2016 were made from tinto cão 90% and rabigato, aged two years in wood. They showed some evolution, with earthy and fresh red fruits, then a powerful structure and a rich mouthfeel. The 2016 was the most powerful of the two.
Miguel Morais came to what is now Quinta da Costa do Pinhão, fell in love with it and knew he had to dedicate himself to the difficult task of working that land. Miguel says that 2014 was his first serious vintage. Over the years he has learned to understand the place better, respect the land, the plants, the animals, and cut on the chemicals, he says.
Miguel Morais and Filipa Silva, Quinta da Costa do Pinhão
Quinta da Costa do Pinhão Branco 2019 was destemmed and fermented with skins in used barrels, and can be called an orange wine. Golden colour; mature apples, yellow fruits (tomatoes) and wet stone; rounded and balanced. The red Marufo 2019, from the rare grape of that name, was light, with currant colour; ripe raspberry fruit, spice; soft on the palate, balanced, and with a beginning evolution. The red with the company name was also of a classic style. Quinta da Costa do Pinhão Peladosa 2019 is a field-blend of 30 different varieties, a hundred years old vines on 1 hectare. Whole bunch pressing was carried out in a 500 litre barrel. Dark and wild fruits (blackcurrant, blackberry), menthol; concentrated flavours and delicate tannins.
There is nothing better than a little slowness in this era, says Rodrigo Martins of Espera (meaning: wait). He continues, we should give the wines time for maturation to deliver authentic and genuine aromas. He has 5 hectares of vineyards in Alcobaça, region of Lisboa, where the simple winemaking styles of the Cistercian monks is an inspiration. The idea is to be patient, and the ambition is to offer a unique quality product, at the same time unpretentious.
Ana Leal and Rodrigo Martins, Espera
I really appreciate the elegant, low-extracted Atlantic style of this producer, and all wines could be highlighted. Here follow four of them. The Bical & Arinto 2020 from a young vineyard with low yield stayed 8 weeks in oak. It shows yellow fruit; is round, tasty, and concentrated. The Curtimenta 2021 stayed 17 days on skins. Light yellow, slightly cloudy; delicate skin-character (lemon peel); grapefruit in the aftertaste. The Espera Palhete 2021, a field-blend of some 20 varieties (70% white) was really delicate and delicious: Light red; raspberries; crisp acidity and a delicate texture. Espera NatCool 2021 is made for the Niepoort-distributed series of low-extracted natural wines in one-litre bottles. It’s made solely from castelão, is light red; with lots of red fruits (raspberry), a touch of flint; delicate, uplifting acidity.
Amoreira da Torre is one of the producers that manage to make fresh, varietal-scented wines from Alentejo, otherwise known for developed, jammy aromas. I tasted a few wines some years ago, and this was a good opportunity to re-discover. 20 hectares with Portuguese varieties from the region was planted in 2001 by Paulo Sendin and converted to organic four years later. The terroir at the estate in Montemor-o-Novo (on the highway to Évora) is characterized by granitic soils, abundant groundwater and a Mediterranean climate.
Paulo Sendin, Amoreira da Torre
The Zebro line features some delicious, fruity wines of several colours at an un-beatable price. The microclimate is good for white wines, with water in the subsoil where roots go deep. Zebro Blanc de Noirs 2020, a varietal aragonêz, is made with very light pressing (“lágrima”), then immediate separation of the must. It’s quite unctuous, or broad, with anise and bitter almond notes; full and somewhat structured on the palate. Amoreira da Torre 2021 (aragonês, trincadeira, some cabernet sauvignon, 6 months in used oak) is youthful dark; fruity, dark and red fruits (morello, plums), green pepper, herbs and eucalyptus; rounded tannins, fresh and not overdone.
Look for next article from the Simplesmente fair, when there will be an update on producers already known on the blog.
