In a rudimentary but efficient cellar, the grapes are fermented by indigenous yeasts and with foot treading, without temperature control or additives. The pressing is manual with a vertical wooden press and aging is mainly in stainless steel or fiberglass vats to avoid notes of wood and thus preserve the purity of the wine.
Varieties: A mixture of more than 15 indigenous varieties. Mainly Tinta Gorda, Malvasia, Bastardo Black and White, Formosa and Verdelho.
Tasting Notes: Red wine from white and red grapes (60%-40%), from different plots between 60 and 80 years old. Wine with a great diversity of grape varieties, grown in clay soils. A greedy, fluid red with a balanced structure.
Vinification: The red and white grapes were co-fermented. Short 5-day maceration of the entire bunch, followed by foot treading and gentle remounting. Pressing before the end of fermentation. No sticking, no filtration.
Internship: Internship 7 months. 80% in stainless steel vats and 20% in used oak barrels.
Uva is a village of 50 inhabitants, sheltered in the hollow of the mountains, surrounded by dovecotes and where the inhabitants cultivate small plots of vines for their own consumption.
Menina d'uva is the project I started in 2017. I left Paris for my parents' village, Uva, for the love of the land, the vineyards and rural life. Today, and after having hardly convinced the inhabitants, I rent 10 small plots of old vines (3ha in total), for an annual production of 10,000 bottles.
The vines are between 40 and 100 years old, and were planted with a mixture of traditional grape varieties from the region. Forgotten varieties, deeply adapted to the climate and soil. At an altitude of 550m, the vineyards rest on schist or clay soils and benefit from a continental climate, characterized by long cold winters and very hot summers.
Viticulture is natural, I use compost to feed the soil and I don't do any treatment (due to the very arid climate, it's possible!). This allows me to focus fully on soil and plant recovery work. As these vines are neglected and previously plowed, the pruning work is more laborious and the restoration of soil life is slow, but fundamental for the elaboration of a terroir wine.
Winemaker: Aline Domingues
