Susana Esteban 'Procura Na Ânfora' 2023

Susana Esteban wasn't born into wine. She grew up in Galicia, in the Rías Baixas region, surrounded by Alvarinho, which might have planted a seed she didn't know was there. At 18, not sure what to do with her life, she signed up for a few wine tastings. She liked it, so she decided she wanted to be a winemaker, even though she didn't really know what that meant.

She studied chemical engineering and did a master's in viticulture and enology in Rioja. Then, in 1995, on a final trip for her master's, she fell in love with the Douro Valley. She'd only known Port Wine before, but Douro wines were a whole world she wanted to discover. She interned at Sandeman, then did a harvest in the Douro, and the certainty grew that she had to do something here. Years went by, doing things here and there, until she arrrved in Alentejo and started making her own wines.

Her philosophy is simple: old vines, no irrigation, in Serra de São Mamede. She is constantly looking for the best old vineyards, the ones that are almost perfect, so she doesn't have to do much in the winery. 

Her Procura na Ânfora comes from an 85-year-old vineyard at 700 metres above sea level in the Serra de São Mamede. The Ânforas are the traditional winemaking system in Alentejo, but usually they're vinified with skin contact and no temperature control. Here, Susana presses and decants, controls the temperature, and preserves the character of this extraordinary vineyard. The wine is intense and complex, very mineral, with lemon pith, grapefruit dreams, juicy, zesty, all the things. On the palate, it's deep and full-bodied, a perfect symbiosis of the minerality and freshness of the Serra de São Mamede with the elegance of the amphorae.

Only 2,708 bottles.