“I believe that this variety benefits a lot from fermentation and aging in barrels”

He was born in Vouzela (Dão‐Lafões) in 1983 and after an initial training in Pharmaceutical Sciences in Coimbra he could not resist the appeal of the countryside and wine and after some vintages in Dão and Douro, he went to work in Melgaço alongside “Mr. Alvarinho”, Anselmo Mendes.

In 2015 he accepted the challenge of a friend and taking advantage of a small vineyard planted in one of the highest places in Monção and over 70 years old, he created the Zafirah wine. A red wine with minimal intervention and intended to be a tribute to the famous red wines from Monção that were exported to England and Flanders in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is currently seeking to recover more old red vines that exist in the region in order to place more emphasis on the red wines of Monção and Melgaço, once so famous and compared to Borgonha and Bordeaux claret wines.

Naturally, working with Mr. Alvarinho it was difficult to resist him too, producing an Alvarinho wine. But it had to be something that clearly showed his vision of the caste and its unique terroir. Thus, using a small vineyard close to the place where he explores the inks, he selected a vineyard planted about 250 meters away and started the Afluent wine. With this wine, he shows his interpretation of the Alvarinho variety: “I believe that this variety benefits a lot from fermentation and aging in barrels and from it seeks to extract more tension, austerity and a marked acidity”.