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The winery in question was Casal da Manteiga – or the Buttery, the only production facility in the Carcavelos DOC (Denominação de Origem Controlada). When I visited the region earlier in February for a tasting of historic wines I didn’t get the chance to visit the winery where the wines are made today. This visit was a chance to change that.
The winery is the old hunting lodge of the Marquês do Pombal, sitting at the top of the hill his estate used to cover, looking south towards the sea. The lodge is surrounded by vineyards and farmland but it is the weather conditions which make this wine unique. No other terroir anywhere in the world has south facing deep oceanic clay soils sloping down to the sea, a mountain barrier to the north, strong coastal winds with a nightly temperature inversion, winter rain and summer dews. No-one can grow grapes with the same characteristics as can be found in this tiny DOC.
- Clouds over the mountains
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To the north of Carcavelos lies the DOC of Colares – where the sandy soils have allowed farmers to continue to use European rootstocks for their vines. Between Colares and Carcavelos lie the Serra de Sintra mountains. At 500 metres (1,700 feet) they are high enough to force the moisture-laden Atlantic air to rise up and drop most of its rain before the strong north-westerly winds reach Carcavelos. This means consistent, strong, moist winds during the day with a temperature inversion in the evening causing the wind to reverse direction and to blow (more gently) from the Atlantic coast to the south of the vineyards. In the winter, these southerly winds bring rain. In the summer the moist air blows from the coast, up the hill cooling as it does and leaving enough dew to be the equivalent of about 3mm of overnight rain. This has a wonderful effect in protecting the grapes from the worst of any excessive heat.
Carcavelos is one of the smallest DOCs in Portugal. Today there are about 30 hectares of vines planted and in production. Villa Oeiras, the largest producer, has 20 hectares with plans to plant 4 more next year and a final hectare in 2025. There are currently 2 other producers who have product on the market and an expectation for a 3rd new producer to join the DOC in a year or two. The belief is that there is around 50 hectares in total across the towns of Cascais and Oeiras (split roughly 2:1) within the DOC region and which could be used for vines.
- Grapes from Cascais being sorted and destemmed
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Casal da Manteiga is the only production facility in the Carcavelos DOC and regulations stipulate that any Carcavelos wine must be made within the region’s boundaries. Luckily, as a publicly owned facility, the Oeiras town council allow anyone growing grapes in the Carcavelos DOC to use the facilities to make wine and this fact has helped considerably in the national and local government efforts to save this wine region from near extinction.
The story of the near extinction of the Carcavelos region is worth repeating. Although fortified wine has been made in the area for around 300 years, and wine for around 2,000 years, the Carcavelos DOC was only formally established in 1908. Demand for the wines was strong, and business flourished until the second world war. In the 1940s and 1950s, interest in the wines from Carcavelos collapsed. Lack of demand combined with the demand for land for housing, retail and industrial development in the 1970s and 1980s meant many of the grape farmers and wine makers gave up on their businesses and sold their land to developers. The last commercial winery closed in the early 1990s.
But, somehow, the potential extinction of the Carcavelos wines came to the attention of the Portuguese central government and in 1983 the ministry of Agriculture stepped in to rescue around 2 hectares of vines which were about to disappear under a new road. These Trincadeira vines were uprooted and planted in a nearby government-owned park – the land around the old palace of the Marquês de Pombal in the town of Oeiras, which lies on the northern bank of the mouth of the Tagus (or Tejo in Portuguese) to the west of Lisbon.
- The original vines planted close to the new apartment blocks
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The ministry of agriculture managed the small vineyard and used a winery to the north of the region to vinify the grapes. In 1986 the Ministry of Agriculture and the local government of Oeiras formed a partnership to manage the vineyard as a community project and resource for local people. In 2001 the partners invested in renovating the old hunting lodge and converted it into a winery production and storage facility. The final change in the structure of the project happened in 2006 when the Ministry of Agriculture transferred all of the assets and responsibilities to the town council.
Carcavelos wines are fortified and can be made from red or white grapes. Villa Oeiras grapes are destemmed and vinified with active, full skin contact (either through rotating fermenting tanks or by use of pump-over in sealed tanks). Still wines (which are released under the Lisboa DOC) are fermented for 5-12 days while the fortified wines are fermented for 5-7 days before fermentation is interrupted by the addition of 77% grape spirit. Interestingly, the spirit used is not neutral, but is chosen to add some character to the wine as it ages in barrel over the next few decades. Wines are matured in used and small number of new wooden barrels of 250, 500, 1500 litres sizes as well as some larger sizes. The wood used is Portuguese oak (which seems to be particularly suited to the style of wine), French oak, Portuguese chestnut and a little Brazilian mahogany. Library stocks go back to the 1980s, but are held in such small quantities that they are never used.
Villa Oeiras has historically produced around 45,000 litres per year, but with new plantings coming online last year production rose to 60,000 litres in 2023 and is expected to increase again to about 75,000 litres this year. 2024 is proving to be a challenging growing cycle with heat and humidity combining to provide perfect conditions for mould – especially botrytis – to flourish.
- Portuguese oak is preferred
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Carcavelos fortified wines must mature in wood for at least 2 years and in bottle for at least 6 months before they can be released to the market. Villa Oeiras’s youngest wine is their 7 Year Old – which means the youngest wines used in the blend must be at least 7 years old (actually a blend of 7, 8 and 9 years old). Offering an older wine of higher quality is a deliberate decision taken by the project team and the town council. The project objective is to rescue the DOC from extinction, but not to create a monopoly over the wine type. Instead, there is deliberate space left for new entrants who may need to manage cash flow more carefully and therefore want to release a 2 year old Carcavelos. The policy seems to be working with Adega Belém releasing a 2021 red Castelão Carcavelos and Quinta da Corrieira a 2012 white Carcavelos in 2024.
The project team can congratulate themselves on a job well-done, but not one which is finished yet!
Tasting Notes
Trincadeira Rosé Espumante.
- Rosé espumante
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Made as a deeply coloured rosé sparkling wine, effectively tasted as a bottle sample since tank fermentation ended only 1 month ago and the secondary fermentation is still in its early stages. Requires 9 months of bottle age to be sold as Espumante. Still a little tanky on the nose. Attractive fruit. Dark rosé colour.
Casal da Manteiga (Vinho Regional Lisboa) Branco 2021. 20% of the wine is made with skin contact and fermented in wood. 75% Arinto, 20% Galego Dourado, 5% Ratinho. Pale lemon colour, lemon and saline nose. Smooth on the palate, generous fruit with an amazing saline core. Very dry but without sacrificing fruit. Stunning tannins. Great length.
Casal da Manteiga Branco 2020 aged in barrel for 3 years, 100% of the wine was vinified with full skin contact. Serious nose of buttery fruit. Smooth, rounded fruit on the palate. Serious wine, with aging potential (up to 10 years). Intense, dry saline finish. A wine with weight and heft.
Villa Oeiras 7YO Carcavelos. Honey orange colour with a floral nose. Thick texture, managing that lovely trick of being honeyed without being sweet. Generous mid-palate acidity, hint of burnt rhubarb. Long dry rhubarb finish. I was astonished to find this has 105g per litre of residual sugar. The age category is a minimum age for wines used in the blend. This wine is made of wines 7-9 years old.
Villa Oeiras 15YO Carcavelos. Much more expressive on the nose than the 7YO. More intense on the palate, deeper, richer and with the residual sugar being less. Scorched honey finish. Great length. Surprisingly (for me, at least) this also has 105g per litre of residual sugar.
- 2014 Colheita
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Villa Oeiras 2014 Colheita. As well as making blended wines, the wine-making team will hold back a selection of lots of wine from a vintage where they think the quality of the wine might justify its later release as a single harvest wine. This is one such selection which was bottled in 2024. Rich and sweet honeyed and floral nose. Beautifully balanced on the palate, tasting dry with the salinity of the region coming through on the mid-palate. Dry finish, of stunning length.
Villa Oeiras 2012 Colheita – Pharos Edition. In 2023, Villa Oeiras and the Portuguese Lighthouse Directorate joined forces to explore how aging wines in close proximity to the Atlantic ocean might affect the way the wines mature. In the middle of the mouth of the Tagus is Bugio Lighthouse – built on top of a fort which sits on an artificial island on a sandbar which closes part of the access from the ocean to the river. Within the fort, Villa Oeiras built a small cellar and in April moved 9 barrels of each of the 2012 Colheita, a 5YO and a 10YO blend to the island to mature.
- The Atlantic cellar
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The first release was a year later in 2024 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Lighthouse Directorate. 4 of the barrels were bottled and released in special, commemorative packaging. The remaining barrels continue to age in the lighthouse cellars and will be bottled in the future.
Open and expressive nose of sweet citrus perfume. Round and ripe on the palate, incredibly fresh with a dry sensation to the wine. Clean, clear with fragrant orange finish. The length of the finish of Carcavelos is consistently impressive.
- 2010 Colheita — Guitar Edition
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Villa Oeiras 2010 Colheita – Guitar Edition. Villa Oeiras mainly uses oak barrels of 225, 500 and 1500 litre capacity but also owns two mahogany barrels of 1,000 and 7,000 litres. These are made from restored wood recovered from a large barrel which had been in use at the Marquês de Pombal’s palace in the 18th century. The wood was about to be purchased by a group of luthiers but a newspaper report brought the story to the attention of the Villa Oeiras project team. After some discussion, a joint venture was formed which enabled each of the six luthiers to create a unique guitar from the historic wood, but also allowed Villa Oeiras to renovate enough wood to manufacture two barrels to be returned to the cellars at the palace where they are once more used to mature the wines from the estate. The wine was launched at a gala party held on the estate where each of the luthiers presented his creation. (The film The Guitar Barrel Project tells the story, which can be hired on Vimeo, or the trailer watched free on YouTube.)
This wine spent 7 years in Portuguese oak and 4 years in the “new” mahogany barrels. Stunning on the nose; sweet and perfumed. Beautifully balanced entry but bringing an incredible intensity on the mid-palate. White pepper on the aftertaste. Intense finish. Dry toned. Superb.
Villa Oeiras 12YO Tinto (barrel sample). Carcavelos can be made from white grapes or red grapes. The majority of Villa Oeiras’s releases to date have been branco, this is a potentially a new product made mainly from the red Castelão grape. Sweet one the nose, ripe fruit with floral perfumed. The fruit is attractively dry on the palate and the wine has a lovely dry finish.
Villa Oeiras 2004 Colheita (barrel sample). A little vinagrinho shows on the nose, the first of the wines at this tasting where this has been noticeable. Dry edges to the generous fruit on the palate. Very concentrated, sugary yet still balanced. The grapes for this harvest were left a little longer on the vine before being picked to understand the impact of allowing them to become slightly over-ripe.
Villa Oeiras 1997 Colheita (barrel sample). Dark amber colour with a green rim. Amazing on the nose, intense and very expressive with a concentrated orange core. Delightful balance on the palate despite the concentration. Fresh yet with a fabulous mid-palate complexity. A flash of acidity on the aftertaste before the subtle tannins provide the dryness to balance the ripe fruit finish. Really, really impressive.
- A very old bottle of Carcavelos
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1927? Quinta d'Alagoa. An old, ullaged bottle but the wine was in great shape. Dark brown colour with an olive green rim. Big vinagrinho nose. Thick texture and incredible salinity on the palate, dry and full of acidity. Baked grapefruit giving such concentration. Just so dry and acidic. The salinity persists on the long, dry finish. A great wine aging with dignity and refinement.
