Antonio Madeira sought his Portuguese roots in the highlands of Dao, a wine region that hides a treasure trove of old vineyards and indigenous varieties. He first returned there from Paris in 2010 and began combing the foothills of the Serra de Estrela in search of small plots of old vines and authentic indigenous varieties in field blends on the characteristic granitic soils on a multitude of slopes and orientations. In many cases these were varieties and vineyards that had been sidelined in the context of the industrialisation and massification of production in this historic region. Until 2017 he lived between Paris and Portugal when he decided to return to his roots for good.
Today, the Dão region, a historic wine-growing area of Portugal, is in a period of refocusing and recovery and one of the most important characters of this renaissance is Antonio Madeira. In these special pieces of land with old vineyards and almost forgotten varieties, Antonio Madeira has identified the "Grand Cru" of the Dao highlands, as he likes to call them, and has dedicated himself to producing wines that emphasize the concept and uniqueness of this terroir.
The field blends of the 8 hectares of vineyards are biodynamically cultivated (since 2017, when it was finally installed) and blended as they come from the vineyard, with the approach being completely "natural" without any interventions during vinification. With the tremendous elegance and quality of the granitic soils, high altitudes and old vines with the region's myriad varieties as his vehicle, he began to realize early on that Dao could be an excellent candidate for producing top natural wines with tremendous finesse. Today he is not just a pioneer of natural winemaking in Portugal but one of the rising stars of the Portuguese wine scene who has turned the spotlight on this unique corner of Portugal.
