Álvaro Castro is one of the most important and consistent winemakers in the Dão, who actually implements his high quality standards. He has thus become a role model for many young winemakers who name him as an inspiration, including Antonio Madeira.
The Dão is located in the mountainous Beira region, north of Portugal's highest mountain range, the Serra da Estrela. There is no industry here, so the air is clean and pure. The barren granite and slate soils give the region's wines their unmistakable character, a combination of lots of freshness and minerality and little alcohol.
Beautiful nose with many scents of wild blackberries, discreetly fruity, also in the mouth. A very tasty and elegant wine with a dense structure, fine tannins, reminiscent of Burgundy.
Incredibly delicious, leaves you wanting more.
Definitely one of our favorite wines from spring to winter!
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Vintage: 2017
- Grape varieties: Alfrocheiro, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional
- Production area: Dão
- Alcohol content: 13%
- Terroir: granite, chalk and sand
- Contains sulfites (58.0mg/L)
- Drinking temperature: around 10°C
The Dão - a wild and original area - is one of the oldest wine-growing regions in Portugal with a protected designation of origin. It is located in the mountainous Beira region, north of Portugal's highest mountain range, the Serra da Estrela. Large wine cooperatives used to be located here, which flooded the market with mass-produced goods - in the meantime it has developed into an interesting wine region, where many small producers with high quality standards work. Álvaro Castro is probably the best known and best of them. In addition to the Quinta de Saes, he also owns the Quinta de Pellada.
Álvaro Castro comes from a family of winegrowers, but originally trained as a civil engineer. It was only when he moved into the Quinta de Saes in 1980, not far from the Serra d'Estrela National Park, that his interest in wine awoke, and so he decided to revitalize his family's old vineyards at an altitude of 500 meters. He has been producing his own wines since 1989 and receives active support from his daughter Maria, who studied oenology. He is now considered one of the best winemakers in the Dão, maybe even in the whole country. In terms of finesse and fruit, his unique wines are at the level of the upper class of the northern and even the southern Rhône. The Quinta's vineyards are at an altitude of at least 500 m in the middle of pine forests and offer a breathtaking view over the mountains. The soils contain a lot of granite, which gives the wines their unmistakable character: they are much slimmer and more elegant than, for example, the wines from the Douro, with less alcohol and less sweetness, instead they are very mineral, classic and straightforward.
Manufacturer: Quinta da Pellada – Unipessoal, Lda. – 6270 - 141 Pinhanços – Portugal
