Mateus Nicolau de Almeida "Eremitas Antão do Deserto" Douro, Portugal 2021

FROM THE SOURCE IMPORTS::

THE WINE: Eremitas are wines made from the same variety, Rabigato. Each wine comes from distinct parcels but they all come from the Douro Superior (Mediterranean / Continental climate), south facing and are in schist soil from the Desejosa Formation presenting small rocky and altitude differences. Although vinified in the same way this parcels create different wines! It stands out the “telluric information” that each place transmits. The grapes go directly into a calcatórium (granite basin) followed by a 3 hours foot trodding. We press them in a vertical press were the juice runs by gravity to croncrete vats in the underground cellar with optimal natural temperature and humidity. Spontaneous fermentation is done without temperature control. The wine ages 1 year in concrete tanks.

THE PRODUCER: Mateus Nicolau de Almeida and his wife, Teresa Ameztoy, began their organic/biodynamic/natural wine project in 2015. Organically farmed and certified, their wines reflect the attributes of a combination of vineyards in the different subregions of Douro and a multitude of indigenous grape varieties. The Trans-Douro Express are three “climate” reds from roughly ten different vineyards that demonstrate what each subregion has to offer: Baixo Corgo in the west is the coldest and wettest, on the far east, on the border of Spain, is Douro Superior, the driest and warmest, while in the center is Cima Corgo, a climatic balance of the two extremes. Each of these wines illustrates the differences in climate, which, of course, is determined by the variety of grapes suitable for each area. Eremitas are three white wines from the Douro Superior and express three different schist-based terroirs. Made only in particular years, the Curral Teles—their “human wines,” are their most experimental, tinkered with in the cellar (including one wine aged inside a granite block!) to discover new gateways to different expressions and nuances. There are also two stellar (but in very low supply), traditionally crafted Port wines, Lágrima (white Port) and Ruby Seco. The wines are often lightly filtered (though the whites that don’t go through malolactic are sterile filtered) and they are rarely fined.