Beiorte Cidade Tinto 2021

Cidade is João Costa's "ode to the freshness and complexity" of the Dão — a red from a single 1.3-hectare field-blend vineyard planted in 1960 outside the village of Santa Ovaia, at 500 metres on a north-facing granite slope. Tinta Pinheira, Trincadeira, Tinta Carvalha and Alfrocheiro are intertwined with a little Touriga Nacional, Jaen and other old regional varieties, all picked and fermented together.

The label's granite wall is the rock of the village and of the Dão itself; the old woman walking with her stick, slowly but with courage, is João's image of the Portuguese countryside and of the determination it takes to carry on what the ancestors left. He uses this label for the wines made from vineyards beyond Santa Ovaia.

2021 was a very difficult harvest — irregular weather and heavy rain through picking, finished at the end of September. The grapes were destemmed without crushing the berries and fermented in an open lagar with wild yeasts and no temperature control, with ten days on skins before a slow pressing. Aged 15 months in oak barrels, then six months in stainless steel before bottling in August 2023. Naturally stabilised.

Region: Dão (Alva sub-region), Portugal
Grape Varieties: Field blend — Tinta Pinheira, Trincadeira, Tinta Carvalha, Alfrocheiro, Touriga Nacional, Jaen and others
Vineyard: Planted 1960, 500 m, north-facing, granite
Farming: Organic, with biodynamic principles (uncertified)
Alcohol: 12%
Total acidity: 5.36 g/L  |  pH: 3.73  |  Total SO₂: 68 mg/L (CVR Dão analysis)

Beiorte began in 2020 when João Costa ("Costinha" to his friends) and his wife Bea returned to Santa Ovaia, in the rugged Alva sub-region of the Dão beneath the Serra do Açor, and revived his great-grandfather's small cellar — once used to make wine for the region's taverns in 500-litre barrels. Their aim is artisanal wine of purity and authenticity, made from old vineyards whose ageing owners were letting them go, preserving the Dão's ancient genetic heritage untouched by fashion. "Beiorte" means wine in Arguina, the old stonemasons' dialect of the village; every cork reads Beiorte Gido — good wine.