GRAPE expectations

Joana Ma Anita

Douro

While studying agricultural engineering at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia in Lisbon, Joana Maçanita worked at a number of wineries in Portugal, before interning at Australia’s prestigious McLaren Vale.

Back in Portugal, along with partners, she created an Oenological Consulting company to support producers of new projects in the Douro, Alentejo, Lisbon and Algarve regions. The wines that resulted have won awards over the past ten years and been applauded by critics worldwide.

Joana, a judge at the International Wine Challenge in London, and Wine Masters in Estoril, developed a training project in 2009 for the restaurant and bar courses operated by the Azores Tourism and Hotel School. And in 2011, she started her wine project, Maçanita Vinhos, in the Douro, with her brother António Maçanita, investing in native grape of the region, such as the red Negra Mole and the white Crato.

In 2012, she took over as Project Director for five wine producers in the Algarve region –Cabrita Wines, João Clara Vinhos, Edd’s Quinta do Barradas, Quinta da Malaca, and in 2016, Morgado do Quintão joined the portfolio.

Nominated for ’Young Winemaker of the Year’ in 2018, and for ‘Breakthrough Winemaker’ in 2019, Joana went on to produce her first book Branco ou Tinto, a guide to how to buy, serve, taste and harmonise wine.

My suggestion to taste: antoniomacanita. com/en/wines/vinhos-macanita/wines/ gouveio-by-joaninha

Pen Nsula De Set Bal

Casa Ermelinda Freitas winery needs no introduction and has long prided itself on being managed by women.

Ermelinda Freitas was a kind of Dona Antónia Ferreira (of Port fame), first in the Setúbal Península, now in the Vinho Verde region, and in the Douro.

The winery was established in 1920 by Leonilde Freitas, continued by her granddaughter, Germana, and later by her great-granddaughter, Ermelinda Freitas, who on the premature death of her husband, passed control over to her daughter. In the early 1990s, the public health professional knew nothing about wine, but she inherited 60 hectares of vineyards in Setúbal and grew her family income from tens of thousands to a turnover of millions of euros, moving from unbranded wines sold in bulk to bottled and branded wines, with the first brand of red Terras do Pó.

In 1999, confident in the commercial results achieved, the company launched the Dona Ermelinda and Quinta da Mimosa brands. And in 2001, the top-ofthe-range Leo d’Honor was introduced and met with great success.

The area of vineyards has continued to expand. Currently, more than six million bottles are produced and there is a capacity for the fermentation of ten million litres in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats.

My suggestion to taste: ermelindafreitas.pt/en/wines/7/32/leodhonor/

From Bairrada

Filipa Pato is a viticulturist in Bairrada. With a degree from the University of Coimbra in chemical engineering, she refined her skills not only with her father, Luís Pato, ‘the Baga rebel’, but as a winemaker by harvesting in Bordeaux in France, Mendoza in Argentina and Margaret River in Australia.

In 2001, Filipa launched an experimental wine that brought Belgian William Wouters, chef and sommelier, into her life as her husband and business partner.

The couple share their experiences and the magical and inexhaustible culture of the world of wine with great wine producers, sommeliers and wine lovers from all over the world. Focusing only on traditional Bairrada varieties, they work exclusively with Baga, Bical, Arinto, Cercial and Maria Gomes grapes. The vineyard is their priority, and early on, they abandoned the use of herbicides in favour of soil health and biodiversity. In the cellar there is minimal intervention, the grapes are selected in the vineyard, they ferment with indigenous yeasts, and use ancestral methods such as wooden presses and amphora. They create ‘Terroir’ wines, uniting knowledge, art and nature, so each wine has its own character. And 20 years later, their Nossa wines are present in more than 40 countries.

Filipa was awarded the Winemaker of the year 2020 title by Revista de Vinhos, the leading Portuguese wine magazine.

My suggestion to taste: patowouters. com/en/vinhos/info/our-history_52/

D O

Julia de Melo Kemper, a Lisbon-based lawyer, was called back to her family vineyards which she inherited, in 2000. But she held out, and it wasn’t until 2003 that Julia responded to the call of the land, and began farming organically at the Quinta do Cruzeiro.

The Quinta is located among the Dão mountains, where vineyards are treated according to organic and sustained agriculture. It is also the place where modern and ancestral grape treading techniques are aligned to transform the crops into fantastic wines.

The Melo family has grown grapes in the Dão region for several generations, but the wines began to be sold internationally in 2010 when the first red vintage (2008) hit the market. And after ten harvests (2008– 2018) Julia Kemper wines are known and sold across the world, and Julia herself is recognised as one of the top producers in the Dão region in Portugal.

Julia Kemper Wines continues to produce some of the best organic wines in its rustic Portuguese cellar adapted to modern winemaking.

The company’s main goal is to produce top wines, using biodynamic and organic techniques, which implies constant work and learning; and, above all, dedication and passion.

The unusual quality of the Julia Kemper wines has been recognised nationally and internationally, and the recipient of a number of honours and important prizes.

My suggestion to taste: juliakemperwines.com/wines/juliakemper-reserve-white/