João Tavares- Terras de Tavares 2019

The vineyards are not certified organic, but we are farmed under organic and sustainable practices, such as use of copper and sulfur. Flowers and herbs such as chamomile act as fungus repellent. The winery is covered in photovoltaic cells; making us a net exporter of electricity and our wines carbon neutral.

Soil Type(s): Beyond the old granitic soils, this vineyard has also plots with even older origin due to marine sediments, from 500 million years ago, which originated shale clayey rocks soils.

Vineyard sorting and manual triage in sorting table then bunches pass through the de-stemmer. Time on skins /maceration is 15 days. The fermentation vessels are 1250L chestnut casks where wild native yeasts begin a spontaneous fermentation. Fermentation lasts 15-20 days, without temperature control, until it is completely dry. The wine sits on for primary lees for 12 months without stirring. Spontaneous malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel and the wine is aged for another 6 months in bottle.

João will tell you all he needs to make wine is grapes, water to clean his equipment and a touch of sulfur at bottling. He rarely uses products in the vineyard, and when he does he only uses topical organic treatments. In today’s world, this is about as minimal as it gets. João isn’t following a natural wine trend. This is how he and his father have always done it. His wine is proof that a deliciously powerful wine can be naturally made, and this 2019 is a perfect example of the kind of wine João makes. This is a particularly warm vintage and the wine is juicy and quite approachable for anyone.

Lamb, Venison, Truffles, Mushroom Ragu, Beef Wellington, Pot Roast

• Portuguese, Northern Italian, French, English