Winemaker Notes
This is an easy drinking Baga wine with a fruity/spicy character, in fact it is a "throwback in time wine". As we have a lot of clay in the bottom of the valleys and in Roman times the wines where made in Clay pots, we wanted to reinstore this old tradition. The big advantage -for us- is that this way of vinification helped us a lot to understand better a lot of small vineyards as we can do a lot of mini vinifications (500 l clay pots). This way we can harvest every plot apart and vinify apart. After this you can really feel the difference in energy and character of each vineyard. Afterwards they blend together the wines they think are more suitable to form a nice and balanced Baga wine. The micro-oxigination helps a lot to put the fruity character of Baga up and helps to soften down the tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Post-Quercus is Pato's Baga that is fermented and aged in uncoated amphorae, coming in at 11.7% alcohol. It's meant to be a lighter and easier style. The winery says that micro-oxygenation through clay amphorae helps soften the tannins of Baga. In any event, this looks like one of the best yet in the brand. Silky and refined, it is beautifully textured. Then, for this lighter-styled brand, it is also chock-full of fruit. The acidity for which the grape is known is on display too, as it cuts through the fruitiness and lifts the Baga. It finishes with a touch of earth and complexity. I'm always curious to see how these will age—it's not really the point here—but there is no reason this can't hold well for several years. The aging issue may give it a ceiling, but this is a super Post-Quercus at the moment, quite possibly the best yet in the brand. There were 1,800 liter bottles and 4,800 half-liter bottles made.
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Wine & Spirits
Filipa Pato and William Wouters farm their 30 acres of vines in Bairrada using biodynamic principles, harvesting the fruit for this wine on the early side, then fermenting and aging it in amphorae. It’s complex and layered, with zesty flavors of raspberry and strawberry, rhubarb and Rosa rugosa. Bright and cool at 11 percent alcohol, this is remarkably easy to drink—but, regrettably, difficult to find, as there are only 276 bottles in the United States.
This dark-skinned, Portugese variety creates powerful red wines with great color, structure and finesse and is specially prominent in the Bairrada and Dão regions. Somm Secret—Because of its ample acidity and striking color, Baga also makes a great rosé; much of it from the Bairrada ends up in this style.