Quinta do Mouro Erro B White 2021

Quinta do Mouro is located at the gates of the city of Estremoz. For centuries it belonged to the Zagalo’s family, one of the wealthiest of Estremoz.  It has a palatial house from the 18th century, with charming gardens, arches and ancient ponds. Its uniqueness starts with it being a small “Quinta” in the Alentejo, where vast “Herdade” estates dominate.  In 1979, with just 26 years of age, fortune dictated the fate of Miguel Louro, when he was faced with the dilemma of buying a Porsche or the Quinta do Mouro at a poker table, among friends. The first hectares of vineyard would be planted in 1989 after a failed foray into livestock.

With the aim of creating great classics in the Alentejo, the first 6 ha of vineyards were planted in 1989. Through successive trials and adaptations, Miguel Louro realized that the key to achieving his goal was a peculiar viticulture, not only with regard to the careful choice of grape varieties as well as the unusual training of the vines, mostly planted in unirrigated schist soils, with low productivity. In the current 33 ha of vineyards, the Aragonez, Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional and Trincadeira, Arinto, Antão Vaz and Verdelho grape varieties reign, along with international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Syrah or Petit Verdot.

The small winery is the stage for a unique and bold approach, where science and poetry combine, in a permanent dialogue and confrontation with some procedures of contemporary oenology. Miguel Louro relies on the manual harvesting, criteriously choosing the grapes in the vineyard in their optimal picking status; on the foot threading in lagares with separation by variety; on spontaneous fermentations using indigenous yeasts; on the use of rustic Portuguese oak barrels along with the more elegant French barrels; and on minimalist artisinal methods in the winery, all of the above preserving the essence of Estremoz’ s unique terroir.

Miguel Louro is the soul of Quinta do Mouro. He loves what he does, and this is evident in the emotion with which he speaks about his wines. A skilful poker player, collector of antiques and a practicing dentist, he devotes most of his time to the vineyards and wine. With a vivid and captivating personality, he is known for speaking his mind and his love for controversies. This ends up showing in each bottle of wine he authors: atypical wines full of personality, the result of innovation and experimentation, refusing to please the market’s trends, using his good (and sometimes bad!) genious to contradict dogmas and always surprise.