TAPADA DE COELHEIROS
Évora, Portugal
An estate with 500 years of history, Tapada de Coelheiros is much more than a vineyard or a winery. The property, a sprawling 800 hectares, incorporates only 50 planted to vine. The rest is a patchwork of walnut trees, olive groves, and most importantly, Portuguese cork oak forest (in many ways, the ancestral backbone of the entire wine industry); Alentejo's sub-region of Évora has deep roots in the world of wine that go deeper than viticulture itself. The property is entirely organic and is biodynamically farmed.
These are just a few of the features that attracted the triumvirate of proprietor Alberto Weisser, Portuguese winemaking luminary Luís Patrão, and vineyard manager João Raposeira to the property. They recognized that at 500 years old, they were not going to teach the domain itself anything new: it was up to them to learn what Coelheiros could do.
The greatest emphasis is placed on biodiversity, but this is not a case of nature running roughshod over the vineyard. Everything is meticulously managed, and technology is used not to tame the land's tendencies but to facilitate its health. The estate's sheep, for example, a key component of the agriculture, are carefully managed; while they naturally cut back overgrowth and fertilize, they can also compact the soils if allowed to graze one area too long. Likewise, bat and bird populations are encouraged throughout the entire property (not just the vineyards) as alternatives to chemical forms of pest management. Bats are especially adroit at managing such nuisances as leafhoppers. Additionally, cover crops both wild and seeded are utilized to allow for better rain penetration (which, in turn, allows for a higher percentage of dry farming, around 60% of the vines at this point). Further, diversity of plant life in the vineyards better aerates the ground and helps to avoid soil decomposition over time, not to mention the microbial benefits.
The vineyards are mostly planted to Portuguese varieties: grapes like Arinto, Antão Vaz, and Roupeiro on the white side, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca (more commonly grown in the Douro than here in Alentejo), and Alicante Bouschet on the red. In fact, Luíz and João are so partial to Touriga Franca that they have replaced older Alicante Bouschet vines and top-grafted it to some of their Cabernet Sauvignon vines (those planted in the 1980's when Portugal was embracing international varietal wines).
Sustainability is as important as organics here in their northwestern pocket of Évora: the temperate climate around 50 miles east of Lisbon allows for it where the more arid southerly reaches of Alentejo might not. The entire property runs on solar power, with their own field of photovoltaic panels, and as they are not able to farm without some irrigation, soil probes are used to measure moisture in the earth to conserve water and prevent erosion.
As a general rule, Coelheiros wines are fermented in tank, preserving the purity of fruit and the expression of the terroir itself. Depending on the bottling, various percentages of the white wines spend time ageing in a mix of 500L wood barrels and foudre on the fine lees. In the case of the higher end whites, some bâtonnage is utilized to enhance richness. The reds also see some wood, only after malolactic fermentation and an extended maceration of up to five days after. This creates a soft, supple quality relatively uncommon in the greater landscape of Portuguese reds. Additionally, Luíz always prioritizes moderate alcohol percentages.