Cabeças do Reguengo
Respiro Altitude, white, 2022

"Minimalist Winemaking. Why?

“I’m not a winemaker. I simply make wine. I concern myself with the grape, not much with fermentation temperatures and oxygen and I’m fanatical about cleaning but not to the point of asepsis.”

The only oenological products used throughout the winemaking and maturing are sulphur dioxide antioxidant and a little tartaric acid (a fundamental ingredient in wine).

We think that any other product apart from these would take away the local expression of the grape. We want the maximum expression of the place and so the grape is called into action.

The recipients used for the wine are the traditional ones: cement vats and lagar, clay amphorae from the old house and used wooden barrels and casks. No stainless steel is involved. The reason for using these materials is to bring the land/mineral/vegetable elements as close as possible to the wine element.

White wine is fermented in used oak barrels or small casks. The red wine is fermented in the cement vats, lagar or amphora and matured in used oak barrels or casks.
Maturing is one year for whites on lees and two years for reds. Bottling is done without fining or filtering the wines. Maturing in the bottle for one or two years.

All the expression of the Estate and local Nature in one bottle of wine…

For all these reasons, and because the mountain is a geographic reality that is totally distinctive in the Alentejo, we should make it clear that we don’t make wine in the Alentejo…

We make wine on Serra de São Mamede."

João Afonso, Cabelas do Reguengo, 

To learn more about this unique project, click here.