{"id":20040,"date":"2018-03-01T14:09:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T14:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=20040"},"modified":"2018-03-01T14:09:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T14:09:03","slug":"antonio-madeira-a-new-star-from-dao-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/portugal\/antonio-madeira-a-new-star-from-dao-portugal","title":{"rendered":"Ant\u00f3nio Madeira: a new star from D\u00e3o, Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Antonio Madeira is a new superstar of the D\u00e3o with his amazingly elegant wines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira began making wines in D\u00e3o while he was still living in Paris (he’s French, of Portuguese descent). In 2010 he found a 50 year old vineyard and began his project, but because the one-hectare plot hadn’t been pruned for three years, there was no wine made in that first year. Instead, his debut vintage was 2011.<\/p>\n

His goal has been to identify the Grand Cru sites in the D\u00e3o, manage the vineyards manually without herbicides to get life into the soil, and to make the wines naturally. Many of the great old vineyards in the region have been pulled out, sadly, and it’s not always easy persuading owners to rent them out. But he has persevered.<\/p>\n

Since July 2017 he’s moved full-time to Portugal to pursue his vinous destiny. He’s now cultivating 23 vineyard plots in 6 villages (though he says that some of these ‘villages’ are just a row of houses on either side of the road), totalling 6 hectares of vines. This is Burgundy scale parcellation! Most are located in the foothills of the Serra d’Estrela, but some are actually more in the mountains. As well as his own production, he also buys in a fifth of what he needs.<\/p>\n

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Ant\u00f3nio is currently building a winery: so far the wines have been made in his garage. This is one of Portugal’s most exciting wine producers, in my view. But really he’s just unlocking the potential of great vineyard sites, so expect to see more wines like this if the market will support people working at this level.<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira Liberdade Branco 2017 D\u00e3o, Portugal<\/strong>
\nThis has no sulfites until bottling (and then just 15-20 mg\/litre). It’s complex, mineral, spicy and reductive on the nose, while on the palate it is lively and intense with pear, citrus and spice. Amazing presence and complexity. 95\/100<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira Vinhas Velhas Branco 2016 D\u00e3o, Portugal<\/strong>
\nThis isn’t bottled yet \u2013 his policy is to bottle two winters after harvest. Really mineral and expressive on the nose. Complex and detailed with citrus, apple, pear. Very refined and expressive with lovely with lovely weight. 95\/100<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira Ros\u00e9 2017 D\u00e3o, Portugal <\/strong>
\nFrom two old north-facing vineyards with 50 different varieties, this is vinified without sulfur dioxide. Not bottled yet. Pale-ish pink red with some sappy cherry fruit. Unfortunately this is also mousy. Let’s hope the final wine isn’t.<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira Colheita 2015 D\u00e3o, Portugal<\/strong>
\nFrom old vineyards vinified separately and then blended later. Supple but structured with lovely pure raspberry and cherry fruit. This has a nice stony grip to it. Very fine with some structure. 93\/100<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira Vinhas Velhas 2015 D\u00e3o, Portugal<\/strong>
\nVines 50-100 years old. Supple and fresh with a bit of sappiness and some sanguine quality. Raspberry fruit with some crunchy tannins. Really nice structure and acidity here with great intensity and elegance. 94\/100<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira A Centen\u00e1ria 2017 D\u00e3o, Portugal<\/strong>
\nFrom a 120 year old vineyard. So distinctive with some fennel and liquorice on the nose as well as blood, meat and fine cherry fruit. Some blackcurrant, too. Really elegant and supple with nice acidity. Has the structure to age. 95\/100<\/p>\n

UK agent: Indigo Wines<\/p>\n

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ant\u00f3nio Madeira began making wines in D\u00e3o while he was still living in Paris (he’s French, of Portuguese descent). In 2010 he found a 50 year old vineyard and began…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[128,350],"class_list":["post-20040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-portugal","tag-dao","tag-portugal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20043,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20040\/revisions\/20043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}