Whoever followed Otto’s Portugal travelogue should remember his wonderfully detailed post about Quinta das Bágeiras, where this month I was gracefully hosted - yet again - by Mário Sérgio Alves Nuno and his son Frederico in order to taste the 2023 release of the white Fogueira, a wine named after the Bairrada town where the estate is headquartered. This is the second iteration (the first having been in 2019) of a wine that stands apart from the DNA of this most traditional Bairrada producer, by employing new oak (both fermentation and 12 month élevage) and by including Chardonnay, a non-native variety, in the blend. As Otto had thoroughly explained, these are no small details in a winery whose trademark is the continued cultivation of Bairrada’s traditions, particularly in the use of lagares and large tonéis for vinification. I was frankly curious and optimistic, though, not only given Mário Sérgio’s classicist tastes, knowledge and credentials, but also because he was informally advised by the man we all consider to be at the top of the heap of white wine oenology in Portugal - the one and only Anselmo Mendes.
A blend of Chardonnay (50%), Cercial (40%) and Bical (10%), it was the wine’s foreign element that stood out for me aromatically; I found there to be a high toned integration of subtle new oak aromas with tangy citrus that, tasting blind, I would have doubtlessly identified as an excellent contemporary white Burgundy. The deception continues upon tasting, with the wine’s beautiful breadth, roundness and texture, but then Cercial makes itself clearly felt in the dry, austere prolongation of its volume, in a formidable aftertaste that grandly punctuates the wine back to its Bairrada origins. It is already excellent, complete and integrated, and will be exciting to follow in the coming years given how much pleasure it provides already today.
My visit ended with lunch at Mugasa, a refreshing bottle of Bágeiras’ sparkling rosé, and Mário Sérgio’s second hand reminiscences of towering figures of Bairrada’s past, such as Caves São João’s oenologist Martins da Costa. I remarked on what a shame it is that, unlike what happens in places like Bordeaux, this knowledge of the region’s old traditions has never been put on the books and survives only in the memories of a few people!