Beiorte Sr. Roubado Branco 2023

Sr. Roubado Branco is made from an old mixed vineyard in the village of Santa Ovaia itself, where the Beiorte cellar sits — vines planted around 1960 and 1980 at 500 metres, facing south-east on granite with a little clay. Fernão Pires, Bical, Malvasia Fina, Encruzado and Arinto grow together with other old varieties of the Dão.

The label carries a very old photograph of a vineyard that belonged to João Costa's great-grandfather in Santa Ovaia — one the family never got to harvest, as it burned in the great bushfire of 2017. João keeps the image, with the silhouette of the Açor hill behind, as a tribute to the land, to his great-grandfather and to the landscape, and uses it for the wines made from the village's own grapes.

Harvested at the beginning of September 2023. The fruit had four days of skin contact as fermentation began, then was pressed and finished fermenting in used oak barrels and a stainless steel vat — wild yeasts, no temperature control. Aged 15 months in the same used oak and stainless steel, and bottled in December 2024.

Region: Dão (Alva sub-region), Portugal
Grape Varieties: Old-vine field blend — Fernão Pires, Bical, Malvasia Fina, Encruzado, Arinto and others
Vineyard: Planted c. 1960 and 1980, 500 m, south-east facing, granite with clay
Farming: Organic, with biodynamic principles (uncertified)
Alcohol: 12.5%
Total acidity: 6.25 g/L  |  pH: 3.47  |  Total SO₂: 33 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.