boa viagem.
release 21. May 2023
boa viagem.
release 21, May 2023.
for this release, we’ve curated a selection of amazing wines from all over Portugal. As a country, Portugal’s viticultural diversity and history are astounding. There’s hundreds of native grapes, a variety of traditional regional styles, and loads of interesting flavors. We’ve picked six wines that are representative of the their regions and the families that produce them.
Casa de Mouraz Palhete 2021
Grapes: Touriga Nacional, Jaen, Rufete, Alfrocheiro, Encruzado, Fernão Pires, Bical
ABV: 11.5%
Region: Alcobaça, Lisboa
Winemaker: Sara Ribeiro and António Lopes Ribeiro
Viniculture: Organic, field blend, hand-harvested
Winemaking: All white and red grapes are picked, and treated in a variety of ways. Some are fermented, some are fermented separately. Some of the white grapes are pressed while some macerate with skin contact. Fermentation is carried out with natural yeasts. The base wines for this cuvée are blended together after fermentation is complete.
Jackson’s Notes: For a long time on the Iberian Peninsula, red and rosé weren’t entirely separate concepts from one another. It was typical to find rosés made in a richer, darker style, and light reds that weren’t far off in body and color. The advent of the Provençal-style, short-maceration rosé over the last 15-20 years meant that a lot of more traditional styles in Spain and Portugal went out of fashion while the rest of the wine world tried to make things that were bright pink and lean on flavor.
In Portugal, Palhete is an old-school style of wine that blends red and white grapes together. The color comes out looking like something between a light red and a rosé, but it’s not either. It’s doing its own thing.
This wine is made by Casa de Mouraz, a small property in the Dão region run by Sara Ribeiro and António Lopes Ribeiro. Years ago they were working in London as art dealers, but were called back home by the allure of working in the vineyards and living a simple life. They developed a passion for organic viticulture and low-intervention winemaking, and the rest is history.
This wine’s allure starts with its captivating cherry-red color. It smells like a field of wildflowers and fresh fruit–that’s something unique that only field blends can truly accomplish. It’s medium-bodied without being bitter or tannic, although it has a nice bit of each. Enjoy the notes of tart, crisp strawberry and dandelion that jump out of the glass as you swirl it. Pair this with mixed-grilled sausages and peppers, or salmon cooked any way you like it.
Food Pairing: Portuguese Beef Skewers by Sunday Supper Movement
Description: I love chilled, lighter reds with grilled food. That fruit and refreshing quality provides a very nice foil to the smoky and intense weight of the food coming off the grill.
Music Pairing: Gal Costa’s “Força Estranha” captures a beautiful countryside sentiment. when I think of the Dão and its windswept, warm hills, I think of guitar music and voices wafting along the breeze. This song just seems to exemplify that vision.
António Maçanita Laranja Mecânica 2020
“Valencia almonds, wheatgrass, apricot pit and sweet carrot juice: these tasting notes almost make this wine sound like a smoothie”
Grapes: A field blend of Arinto, Roupeiro, Verdelho, Antão Vaz, Alicante Branco, Trincadeira-das-Pratas, and Fernão Pires
ABV: 12.5%
Region: Evora, Alentejo
Winemaker: António Maçanita
Viniculture: sustainably/organically farmed vines, ranging from 25 to 50 years in age
Winemaking: The grapes are gently pressed and left to macerate for a week with a small amount (10-15%) of remaining juice still inside the grapes. After one week, these grapes are pressed again, and the wine is made only with the concentrated juice from the second pressing
Wine Quote:
Jackson’s Notes:
Antonio Maçanita is a magnetic personality, and maybe one of the most compelling winemakers in Portugal today. What’s astounding isn’t just the quality of his wines, it’s the prolific nature of his production. Besides his multiple winemaking ventures on the Portuguese mainland, he also makes wine in the Azores and Madeira. His vines and contract vineyards are farmed holistically with organic viticulture. He’s always pushing for lower intervention winemaking, and not afraid to experiment with new aging vessels or styles.
This wine, A Laranja Mecânica, is a nod to Antonio’s creativity and boundary-pushing nature. It’s an orange wine but one that defies categorization. Many winemakers make their orange wines by giving their white grapes a bit of skin contact, Antonio takes it a step further with a gentle pneumatic pressing–this forces a portion of freshly pressed skins and juice to stay in contact for a whole week. This process adds a great deal of texture and mouthfeel to the final product.
Texture is the reason we picked this wine. Laranja Mecânica comes onto the palate with a strong sense of density and texture. It’s viscous without feeling heavy, and finishes briskly without being too tart. Valencia almonds, wheatgrass, apricot pit and sweet carrot juice: these tasting notes almost make this wine sound like a smoothie. But it goes down silky and light, with a pleasant, lingering bitterness.
Food Pairing: Bacalhau a Bras from Food & Wine
Description: one of my favorite ways to pair orange wine is to set it up with foods that have strong smoky or oily flavors–the textural/bitter elements of the orange wine pair nicely with the strong flavors of the food.
Music: “Ainda Lembro” by Marisa Monte + Ed Motta
Description: a soulful wine like this deserves a sultry, silky song. And Marisa + Ed bring it on this track. Soft, pillowy rhythms and vocals remind me of the pleasant experience of drinking this wine.
Luis Seabra Xisto Ilimitado Tinto 2020
“Aromas of dried flowers, cumin and resinous Esteva leaf”
Grapes: 30% Touriga Franca, 20% Tinta Amarela, 20% Tinta Roriz, 10% Rufete, 10% Tinta Barroca, 5% Malvasia Petra, 5% Donzelinho Tinto
ABV: 13%
Region: Douro, Portugal
Winemaker: Luis Seabra
Viniculture: organically-farmed old vine sites throughout the Douro region
Winemaking: 30% fermented in stone lagar with foot pigeage; other 70% in vat, 100% whole cluster. Maceration – lagar for 8 days; vat for 25 days. Racked to neutral barrel for 1 year followed by 5 months in tank. 100% natural yeast fermentation
Jackson’s Notes:
For more history and context for the Douro River Valley, where this wine comes from, please read the entry for the Quinta da Romaneira Tinto that is also in this box.
Luis Seabra is one of those winemakers that speaks loudly with few words. He’s not the most boisterous human, but his wines have got a lot to say. In a region like the Douro, where winemakers have spent decades outdoing each other with extra richness, oak and late-harvest hangtime, a subtler wine style can say the most.
Seabra farms organically, with the principles of sustainable, regenerative agriculture–water as little as possible, use no chemicals, and let complementary plants thrive. The Douro is a dry, warm climate, which makes organic farming an attainable goal. In terms of winemaking, there’s a similar bent towards minimal intervention with everything Seabra does–no chemicals, no additives, no BS. The point is to showcase the terroir and soil of the Douro grapes as faithfully and accurately as possible, and that’s why we picked this wine.
Xisto Ilimitado is an exploration of a single soil type that you’ll find everywhere in the Douro Valley: Schist. It retains heat, drains well, and gives an incredibly powerful and dense mineral texture to the wines produced in it. This wine is made in both a red and white version, and both are field blends that downplay individual grapes in the interest of showcasing terroir.
Xisto Ilimitado Tinto is more a symphony of a Douro wine than a rock concert. It needs to be opened for 30 or more minutes to breathe and come to life. Even though it’s grown in ripe, warm vineyard sites, it doesn’t yell at you with raisinated, overripe fruit. Notes of fresh blueberry, boysenberry and pomegranate are complemented by wet stone and fresh sage. Aromas of dried flowers, cumin and resinous Esteva leaf make it feel like you’re walking through a spice shop.
Food Pairing: Portuguese Piri-Piri Chicken by Food52
Description: the spice here is good but not overpowering, and this medium to full bodied, elegant red begs for a flavorful poultry dish to pair with it.
Music: “Violeta Se Fue” by Brisa Flow
Description: this wine is looser, more subtle, the opposite of trying too hard to be liked. This song and its vocalist also don’t care what you think of them.
João Pato Rosa Duck Pèt-Nat 2021
“Raspberry yogurt mingles with rose petals, orange peel and fresh tarragon”
Grapes: 95% Fernão Pires, 5% Baga
ABV: 11%
Region: Bairrada
Winemaker: Maria Pato
Viniculture: Sustainable/organic farmed 30 year-old vineyards throughout the Pato family estate in Bairrada
Winemaking: Red and white grapes are fermented together in plastic eggs. Fermentation is spontaneous. The wine ages for 3 weeks in stainless steel tanks before bottling.
Jackson’s Notes:
João Pato is a small winery project run by Maria Pato, daughter of famous Portuguese winemaker Luis Pato. But no Pato family member rests on their laurels or the accomplishments of their relatives. Both she and her sisters have been pushing the boundaries of their own home appellation in the Bairrada region, seeking out new and interesting vineyards to exploit, while trying out experimental winemaking techniques.
This wine was an instant shoe-in for our Portuguese wine release. It’s crisp, delicious and easy to love. We put several winsome pèt-nat style wines in boxes during our first year, but it’s been a while since we did one and this was one of the best we’ve had in a while.
This “Rosa Duck” Pèt Nat is made by blending red (5% Fernão Pires) and white (95% Maria Gomes) grapes together, and letting them ferment in the same vat. This is bottled with a touch of residual sugar remaining at bottling so that the fermentation can finish inside the bottle, hence carbonating the wine and providing a nice frothy mousse.
Raspberry yogurt mingles with rose petals, orange peel and fresh tarragon in this wine, making it a feast for the senses. Texturally this hits the palate fruity and bright, rinsing the palate with tangy acid and piquant bubbles. Pair this with charcuterie, or the excellent regional pairing of bacalhao croquettes.
Food Pairing: Portuguese Potato-Chorizo Bites from Sunday Supper Club
Description: I love crunchy, crispy bite-sized snacks with anything sparkling
Music: “Gangsta Boogie” by Mano Brown + Lino Krizz
Description: what kind of delicious, boisterous wine would one drink while listening to Gangsta Boogie? A wine like this is the answer.
Quinta do Santiago “Assinatura de Família" Vinho Verde 2021
“loads of citrus: yuzu, Sorrento Lemon, and Key Lime.”
Grapes: 40% Arinto, 30% Trajadura, 30% Loureiro
ABV: 10.5%
Region: Minho/Vinho Verde
Winemaker: Joana Santiago
Viniculture: organic, regenerative agriculture.
Winemaking: All grapes are manually harvested. Wine making begins with a gentle press followed by natural settling. All fermentation is completed with natural yeasts, done mostly in stainless steel vats.
Jackson’s Notes:
Located in the northern part of Portugal, Minho is a verdant region with many small family farms and vineyards. Many of them sell whatever grapes they have to a large co-op to be blended into cheap bottles of cheerful, off-dry Vinho Verde.
Joana Santiago was encouraged to go into wine by her grandmother, who had kept their family estate alive for decades by growing all manner of vegetables, fruits, grapes and grains. There came a point where Joana decided to raise the bar for her family’s vineyards, and to begin to focus on quality winemaking.
This bottling runs decidedly contrary to many of the Vinho Verdes produced and consumed today. Most of them are in the lowest price tier possible, meant to be consumed within six months to a year after harvest, and made in massive quantities by factory-style wineries. This isn’t the case with the wines of Quinta do Santiago.
As part of a diverse, organically-farmed family estate, vineyards are just one piece of the puzzle, rather than a monoculture. Life is abundant at Quinta do Santiago, and the wines themselves show that vibrance and energy that comes from being raised in a holistic ecosystem.
This Assinatura de Família Vinho Verde is the flagship, classic white from the estate. Like other wines in this release, it showcases the power of field blends, and how well they can transmit the essence of a particular place. This wine leads with loads of citrus: yuzu, Sorrento Lemon, Key Lime, and a generous kiss of sea spray saltiness. It’s bone dry, and rather than cheap sugar or bubbles like many mass-market Vinhos Verdes, this finishes with fruit and bright acidity.
Food Pairing: Clams with Bacon and Garlic via Food From Portugal
Description: you can’t go wrong with Vinho Verde and seafood paired together. The saltiness of the wine and the dish match beautifully, and the citrusy bite of this wine helps cleanse your palate nicely!
Music: “Voltei Pra Mim” by Marina Sena
Description: this is the most lively, bright wine in the release, so we needed some fresh, lifted music to accompany!
Quinta da Romaneira Tinto 2015
“black cherry pie, roasted plums, and dates”
Grapes: 40% Touriga Nacional, 40% Touriga Franca, 10% Tinta Roriz, 10% Tinto Cão
ABV: 13.5%
Region: Douro, Portugal
Winemaker: António & Carlos Agrellos
Viniculture: Sustainable + organically-farmed vineyard terraces high above the Douro River.
Winemaking: Winemaking is done in a new facility dug straight into the hillside of the Douro valley, which allows things to be heated/cooled at will. The grapes for this red blend are handled gently, fermented with natural yeasts and aged in a blend of new and used 225 liter oak barrels for 14 months before bottling.
Jackson’s Notes:
The Douro River Valley was one of the world’s first demarcated wine regions as encoded by law. Long before France devised its AOP system, Portugal’s wine trade was thriving under a law that helped guarantee grapes came from a specific region and were made in a traditional manner. It would pave the way for the rest of the wine world’s quality models.
Even though Port wine is one of Portugal’s national treasures, and the chief product of the Douro Valley, Port is widely considered to be out of fashion. Compared to 100 years ago, almost nobody drinks Port wine anymore. I think that’s a mistake, because there’s some amazing Port wines both sweet and dry in style that are worth your attention.
But most compelling is the way that Port houses and wine producers have pivoted over the last 30 or so years to confront the realities of the market. Many houses that once only made Port are now making at least one interesting dry red wine, if not several. The Douro contains loads of beautiful, terraced old vineyards with dozens of interesting grapes to be exploited and tried.
Such is the story with this winery. Quinta da Romaneira was an old, storied Port house that had fallen into disrepair. It was purchased in 2004 by a forward thinking investor group led by Brit Christian Seely, who saw the great potential of the property and its terroir. While Romaneira still produces Port wine, they also have a wide array of compelling dry reds and whites from their varied old vine parcels all over the estate.
This Tinto showcases a big, spicy classic Douro Valley red profile. It’s made from mostly Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, two of the typical Port grapes. The fruit here has baked notes, reflecting its warm growing conditions–black cherry pie, roasted plums, and dates. A touch of new oak gives a nice spicy undercurrent of vanilla and allspice. Pair this with grilled veggies and meat!
Food Pairing: Pork Vinha d’Alhos from Food52
Description: a wine this rich needs something simmered and concentrated
Music: Valsa by Carlos Paredes
Description: This wine evokes old and storied Iberian mountains and valleys, and it felt right that a more old school instrumental track should pair with this contemplative cuvée