Text João Barbosa | Translation Jani Dunne

I’m starting this text exactly the same way I’m going to start the next one. Writing about one of my three favourite Portuguese wines is difficult given the necessary care with your common sense, pleasure, memories and the product’s intrinsic quality.

I appreciate certainty; even the certainty that comes with uncertainty. I like a Coca-Cola to be a Coca-Cola – always the same. I like the certainty within the uncertainty of great wines. That’s what happens with this company in the Douro region.

Maritávora is a magical name if you think about how the Távora Family suffered when they were exterminated by the first Marquis of Pombal. I can’t even understand how people still use this surname. The present owner of the Quinta de Maritávora – in Freixo de Espada-à-Cinta – is unrelated to that aristocratic family.

The property was bought in 1870 by the father of poet Guerra Junqueiro, Manuel Gomes da Mota’s great grand-uncle. I first met him when he had a show on RTP about agriculture. He wanted to create a different kind of wine-tourism, relentlessly leading people to that wilderness to make an exclusive wine. Why? Because that town thrives on tours of the blossoming almond trees; because no one knows that the person who sketched Mosteiro dos Jerónimos monastery was also there; you see, the monastery has a strange tower with seven walls.

The cameraman and I arrived at dinnertime. There are no sophisticated restaurants in this area; you eat what the land offers you – the principle of the “Kilometre Zero” landmark, of the slow-food and of the wisdom of Alexandre Dumas Senior.

Manuel Gomes Mota opened a bottle in this inland-style restaurant: “Wow!” Quite a wine, and “weird” too. What was that? It expressed a lot, but it was almost always beating about the bush, thus excluding the obvious. “When you visit the farm tomorrow, you’ll see.”

Manuel Gomes Mota – Photo Provided by Maritávora | All Rights Reserved

Jorge Serôdio Borges – Photo Provided by Maritávora | All Rights Reserved

Quite right! Schist-rich soil (very much so), centenary vines, wine of grand minerality, and a kerfuffle of varieties in the vineyards – typical of the olden days.

What does terroir mean? It’s something no vintner leaves unclaimed. What is a terroir? It’s some complex and rare “thing”. Maritávora has it! Good soils (not just pebbled schist), its own weather, good vineyards (their culture is in organic mode), and oenology is supervised by Jorge Serôdio Borges, one of the oenologists who best know the Douro region.

Maritávora markets a range of choices; it’s impossible to write about all of them. It all sarted with a white and a red wine. Fit for the title of Grande Reserva, although only later on did they receive it.

As far as I am concerned, the Maritávora Grande Reserva reds suffer from the second-born syndrome. The high-responsibility tasks assigned to the eldest at ten years of age are denied to the youngest even when he is 12.

The top-of-the-range reds “stay” in the dark. Not because they don’t deserve it, but because the whites are special. Maritávora Grande Reserva Vinhas Velhas red 2011 is complex and dense, it will last a long time. Made with grapes of varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, among “others”, it was left to age for 18 months in new French oak casks.

Maritávora Grande Reserva Vinhas Velhas 2011 red – Photo Provided by Maritávora | All Rights Reserved

Grande Reserva Vinhas Velhas 2011 white – Photo Provided by Maritávora | All Rights Reserved

My passion is the Grande Reserva Vinhas Velhas white. The one from 2011 has the charisma and catchy personality of its older brothers, with the benefit of being from the year 2011. The varieties are Côdega do Larinho, Rabigato, Viosinho and “others”.  It aged for three months in new French oak barrels, with battonnage. Just the same as the 2012… the 2010 ones…

The same?! Of course! Glowing minerality and a “strange thing”, which is a refreshing warmth –  it has the weather factor, the demands of the grapes, of the soil and of the noble wood.  Long, deep and varied while you drink it.

The same?! No, fortunately not. The uncertainty found in great wines feels so good!

Contacts
Quinta de Maritávora, EN221, Km88
5180-181 Freixo de Espada-à-Cinta
Portugal
Tel: (+351) 214 709 210
Fax: (+351) 214 709 211
E-mail: mgm@maritavora.com
Website: www.maritavora.com