Known as the chief winemaker of the biodymanic Bucelas producer Quinta da Murta (available in BC), Hugo Mendes launched his crowd-funded micro-negociant label in 2016. A step was taken in 2019 to leave Quinta da Murta to fully push this project to the next level. The range hails from Lisboa, Tejo and Alentejo. Hugo likes to work with local varieties and weaves his magic on Lisboa’s traditional work horse varieties - Fernão Pires and Vital – as well as noble Arinto. In Tejo, he is busy elevating Castelão. In Alentejo, Hugo has produced an accomplished talha wine for his ‘Underdog’ cooperation label with XXVI Talhas.
He is now considered as one of the country’s most pioneering and cutting-edge winemakers.
Organic. Trincadeira, destemmed, spontaneously fermented in a closed stainlesssteel tank. 16 months in used oak.
Pure, dark-red and dark fruit, raspberry and black cherry, but without the sweetness they suggest and with a subtle layer of stone-dust adding to its immediate appeal and refinement. It does have a very, very slight leafy quality even though there were no whole bunches in the ferment – but no greenness. On the palate, this is mouth-watering, dry but still somehow full of moreish, vibrant and generous fruit. The freshness and the perfect ripeness of the fruit (just ripe, still full of life and energy) are exactly matched. I barely thought about the tannins at first because they are so well integrated but they seem to give just the right amount of bite on the finish so that the wine seems it might have the capacity to age for a few years, be drunk with food, or enjoyed with little snacks. For me, it’s too well structured to be drunk without food at all but crisps would do!
17 Jancis Robinson
