Mateus Nicolau de Almeida left in 2015 to lead the production of Muxagat wines to create a personal project centered on Vila Nova de Foz Côa and to realize his old dream of being a caveman, producing wines from hermits. He excavated his cellar in the shale in front of his house, equipped it with cement vats and some bold granite imagined with his architect mentor Pedro Jervell da Skrei and launched himself in full swing in the exploration of the singularities and nuances of each sub-area do Douro through Transdouro Express wines that decline the Douro red in their versions Baixo Corgo, Cima Corgo and Douro Superior in a revelation of the different climates of the Douro. The grapes are bought from winegrowers who have been following over the years and the composition of the varieties among the 3 wines from 3 different sub-regions is similar so that this is not the decisive factor, but rather the geographical location of greater or lesser proximity. to the Atlantic. When he slowed down and left the inter-Douro supernatural journeys, he isolated himself in the cave to ferment white monastic ideas that gave light to the white Hermits (Amon de Kelia, Paulo de Tebas and Antão do desert), coming from some of the vineyards he already worked at the time of “Muxagat” in the area of Muxagata and Vila Nova de Foz Côa, which are variations on the Rabigato variety according to the soils, altitude and exhibitions.
He lacks consecration, being able to respond to the greatest challenge that launched him a moor of pure strain: the collection of Hamam wines, declining the trilogy in three chapters: Evaporations, Wine at full steam and dripping Massajado, reconciling voluptuousness, the Orient and the familial spiritist spirit contributing to a new era of exchanges and synergy between the Celtic Porteños and the Moors of Lisbon.
Mateus Nicolau de Almeida
Douro
