Whatever might be written on the label, Tiago’s style is quite recognisable. The wines have a feeling of energy and a lightness of touch which reflects the high altitude of Tiago’s vineyards (they stretch up to 700m above sea level). Whites and reds alike tend to have fascinating textures. Pét-nats have become a small obsession, and are very good, as is the Moscatel Gallego, with pin-sharp, minty aromatics. Moscatel is a specialty of the area around Favaios, where Sampaio has some of his vineyards.

Renegado is a firm favourite of ours – a red/white blend that is dangerously drinkable, fresh and light. It’s a kind of homage to the simple wine that Douro grape growers have always made for their own consumption – ‘consumo’ as it’s known locally.

Since 2019, Tiago rehoused his winery in Sanfins do Douro’s old coop winery building. He also now has a pair of antique talhas that were gifted to him by Vasco Croft.

Morais renovated the old winery at the quinta, and together with consultant winemaker Luis Seabra started to make wine from 2014. The estate’s single white wine is fermented with its skins, just as both red or white ports would have been vinified. Morais has chosen not to highlight it on the label – something that would be bound to fall foul of the IVDP’s certifying board – but his branco is very definitely an orange wine. It has a flinty, concentrated and almost Burgundian quality.

The red wines sit in the same Douro new-wave category as Conceito or Folias de Baco. High alcohol or toasty oak is not on the menu. 

Wines that have impressed us recently include  Xisto Amarelo (yellow schist) 2018 and Quinta da Carolina 2017.

These are Douro wine styles that don’t rely on overpowering oak or high alcohol.

This later includes “Lollipop Hop”, a fascinating and quite delicious co-ferment of white grapes with hops.

The estate is blessed with old vineyards and a wonderful location.

Part of this later range is an orange wine (“Undo”) which seems to be more successful with each passing vintage. The 2020 is really something.

The estate is in organic conversion but not yet certified.

White-haired and with the lean, weathered look of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, Paiva isn’t a big talker. When he’s asked how biodynamics can work in the wet and challenging climate of Vinho Verde he just smiles doggedly and says one word: “Faith”. He counts himself as an agnostic, however when it comes to biodynamics he’s now very much a believer.

The vines at Quinta da Palmirinha are still interplanted with vegetables in traditional Vinho Verde style and Paiva has chickens on bug-eating duty among the vines, too. Taking the Steiner idea of closed-loop farming to its extremes, Paiva even uses the fronds of his palm trees to attach the vines to their trellises. He’s fashioned a contraption with a wooden board and two nails which allows him to strip the fronds into thin ties.

Wanting his winemaking to be as minimalistic and additive free as his viticulture, Paiva started experimenting with making wine without any added sulphites in 2016. Simultaneously, he discovered that the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança were trialling powdered chestnut flowers as an alternative antioxidant to sulphur dioxide for the production of cheese. Paiva felt that if it could work for cheese, there was no reason why it wouldn’t work in wine. He has worked closely with the institute ever since, and now uses this naturally occurring substance made from chestnut trees that grow on his land in all his wines.