Visiting Fitapreta, Alentejo's hidden treasureby Anri Nakamura Cohen (Village Cellars - Strategy & Planning Manager)(photo: Jon - Sales Manager Village Cellars, in front of the cellar door)How we found FitapretaIt was several busy months after returning to Japan from England in early 2021 to join a family business, when an email from a winery in Alentejo region of Portugal looking for an importer, landed in my inbox. My husband Jon and I knew the region well. Just to the north of Algarve where we frequented on beach holidays, and to the east of Lisbon where our closest friends were from, Alentejo is a region of vast rolling hills dotted with cork trees and olive trees and where life moves at a slower pace. Nostalgia took over, and before I knew, I had replied, "ok, let's try your wine".Wines that arrived in a sample box few months later were absolutely delightful - clean, elegant, sophisticated, complex, and also very different from other wines in our portfolio. Few months later, the first order arrived, and the first opportunity we had, we visited the winery, and their charismatic owner/winemaker, António Maçanita.About Fitapreta Vinhos EstateWhen we arrived through a minimalistic winery gate and drove down several kilometers of dirt track, we could not imagine the building we eventually arrived in - Paço do Morgado de Oliveira, a medieval palace founded in 1306. Fitapreta was established in 2004, originally using third party wineries, then a winery in Outeiro de Esquila, António acquired this land and the palace, which had fallen into disarray.He built a modern cork-built winery onto the main palace building in 2017, where sorting up to primary fermentation happens. Parts of the palace closest to the winery are used to house barrels, amphoras and tanks for maturing the wines. Since acquiring the property the team has planted 30 hectares of vines around the estate, and these fruits are being used for the last few vintages. Significant work is being undertaken in the other parts of the palace, as it was altered significantly in the 19th century. A medieval chapel, an old olive oil refinery and numerous artefacts have been found since he acquired the site. Some of these are restored and others are used to create a stylish function space. He explains that the revenues from corporate and private functions fund the overall operation. He has grand plans including accommodation, restaurant and the vegetable patch. the When I asked him, "when do you think this will be done?", he laughed and said "Maybe in my children's life time, but every time you visit you will be able to see what's changed. Isn't that exciting?". A minimalistic gate off the dirt track.Palace in the distance beyond newly planted vineyardsThe cellar door and the winery (dark brown building to the left) adjoined to the 14th century medieval palace (to the right)The modern winery inside the cork buildingWines are matured in stainless tanks, oak barrels and amphoras inside the old building (From Left: António, me, David - Sales Director of António Maçanita wines)A large court-yard between the palace and the winery. They once held a Lamborghini function here, and the luxury car owners were admittedly weary of rather a dusty condition.A medieval chapel found and restored on site is used as a function roomrestoring the awning - shade is very important in hot Alentejo climateareas still under restorationExcavation has revealed a medieval olive oil refinery with mills and built-in amphoras used for storage. About the VineyardsAntónio then talked through the various vineyard where the fruit for Fitapreta wines are sourced from. The vineyard adjoined to his estate (Morgado de Oliveira) and vineyards he acquired (Chao das Eremitas, which is over 50 years old) and rented or on-contract vineyards with viticulture philosophies comparable to the estate owned. All vineyards are un-irrigated except for Vale de Seda which has solar irrigation although hardly used, and are organically certified.He believes that unirrigated vineyards can only exist where it has access to water source and can only host the most suitable clonal material, which make them resilient to heat spells, climate change and be productive for longer. This philosophy doesn't come without sacrifice, which is evident as we walk through Morgado de Oliveira vineyards - low initial survival rates of newly planted vines are painfully visible. However, he says a good clonal selection (i.e. which nursery it comes from) makes a difference, and the survival rate of the remaining vines are high, so he expects longevity from these vineyards. Vineyard map showing the locations of Fitapreta vineyardsRows of Tinta Carvalha in Chao dos Eremitas, planted in 1970 (acquired)Vinha da Nora, planted in 1980s and organic since 2015 (contracted - image provided by the winery) Vineyards of Morgado de Oliveira (planted 2018) beyond the restored water fountain of the palace. About winemaking philosophyNext we took a tour of the winery. The winery consists of a 3-tonne press, and ample tankage. António explained how they don't add sulfur pre-fermentation, which some wineries do to prevent oxidation and retain freshness. However, he learned that freshness can be retained by harvesting at night, hand sorting, and gentle whole-bunch pressing. He explained that when grape must is oxidized this way, flavonoids (bitterness) in the must oxidizes, binds with protein and precipitates, which negates the need for aggressive filtration.He also explained that without sulfur a wider spectrum of indigenous yeasts contribute to fermentation, resulting in sensitive, complex flavours. This gives grounds to experiment with various vineyard and pied de cuve combination, and allow them to explore what they consider to be the terroir of Alentejo. We compared Morgado de Oliveira Arinto, fermented with yeasts from the same vineyard and from Vinha da Nora.Each barrel contains different combination of vineyard and yeast, which are blended together to make the final product.Wine samples from the barrelsHe also told us that good winemaking is in the details which should be incrementally improved over time. You can be see it in the way they put a particular emphasis on pump-overs which they insist on doing by hand, or the way they fill the tanks to start fermentation, or even in the design of their new winery to use gravity for grape transfer. These practices are learnt from relentless interrogation of their wines' characters, and is what gives their wines pure, sophisticated finish. Where from here?We finished the tour and sit down for a glass of wine, which led to several more glasses including some back-vintages from António's secret vault, and dinner, and as we were still there few hours later, were joined by Alexandra who is the head of Wine Tourism and also António's wife, and Patricia, one of the winemakers at Fitapreta. He told us how Covid affected them as they were supplying mostly to restaurants, but through social media, they found new drink-at-home fans. Some of these newly acquired fans are coming to visit the winery, now the Covid restrictions have been lifted. They can try flights of wines with meals using vegetables grown at the winery. Winery vegetable patch was built during CovidWhen I asked him why they approached Village Cellars to import their wine, when we had no Portuguese wine on our portfolio, he said, "In each market we deliberately choose importers that don't handle Portuguese wines. I feel that some people have a perception on what a Portuguese wines should be, and our wines often don't seem to fit that criteria." (left to right) Alexandra, António, Patricia , David