Chinado Palheto, 2022

Let me share with you a little about me and why I began this project. In 2016 I came to know that my grandfathers 1980 vineyard in Alcobaça, my hometown, would be left abandoned and so I jumped in and decided to take over and look after it, even though I had no experience in wine growing, I was just a sound engineer and a wine lover with WSET Level 2 training. From day one I’ve had the help of my friend and winemaker Rodrigo Martins and we’ve been doing wines together since 2017. I fell in love with wine growing and wine making so in 2018 I was looking after 2 more vineyards in the vicinity that have been recently left abandoned. One of these vineyards is dated back in the sixties, which makes it one of the oldest vineyards still alive in the whole region, and it contains more than 30 different grape varieties, both white and red mixed up. Today we have 6 plots in total and we oversee the farming of another 3 where we source some grapes from. I’ve been focusing on growing grapes in a sustainable way, discarding the use of herbicides and systemic chemicals and moving towards complete organic farming, which we've been doing since 2020. At the winery I use only grapes and small amounts of sulfur, used french oak barrels and indigenous yeasts. I try to keep it simple, always allowing for spontaneous fermentation, which is not simple at all and requires permanent attention to the wines and extra care to allow them to live in the bottle.