Filipa Pato 'Nossa Calcario' Branco
BAIRRADA, PORTUGAL | 2022
Filipa Pato started her own project in 2001, driven by a passion for the traditional indigenous grape varieties of Bairrada. As a university student, she studied chemical engineering in Portugal, but she refined her winemaking skills by working harvests in Bordeaux, Argentina, and Australia, and with her father, Luis Pato, the Baga rebel.
She works a total of 12 hectares of vineyards scattered in various plots throughout the Bairrada appellation of Portugal. Using biodynamic farming practices and minimal-intervention winemaking, Filipa and her husband, the Belgian sommelier and restaurateur William Wouters, aim to make authentic wines that express the characters of the vineyards. Their focus is on indigenous grapes only—Baga, Bical, Arinto, Cercial and Maria Gomes.
Filipa and William make almost 20 wines in total, and “Nossa Calcario” is a special cuvée that sources its grapes from their home village of Óis do Bairro. This Atlantic influenced village sits just 15 kilometers from the ocean, and has been known for hundreds of years as an important place to grow grapes.
“Calcario” is a reference to the chalky soil of the region, and it is an ideal place to grow the local variety, Bical. Filipa and William only select top grapes for this cuvée, harvesting by hand, gently pressing in a pneumatic press before fermentation with natural yeast in old oak barrels of various sizes ranging from 500 liters to 2000 liters. The wine rests on its fine lees for 10 months, without any stirring. It is then racked off the lees and the barrels are combined into stainless steel before bottling.
The 2022 is a brilliant vintage for this wine. Gorgeous notes of mineral, citrus, smoke, toasted hazelnuts and thyme. On the palate, this has nice texture, with medium weight, a salty minerality, some stone and citrus fruit, and a long, elegant finish. Of course this will work incredibly with seafood, but it has the texture and weight to handle meats such as veal or roasted chicken. An incredible value.