Celestino 2018

(from Bowler Wine)
100% Muscat a Petits Grains sourced from Quinta da Olga, in the Douro region, a vineyard planted on schist at 600 meters high of altitude. Fifty per cent of the grapes were crushed and macerated for three days, the other half was vinified on whole clusters and macerated for three months. Fermented and aged in steel tanks.

Vitor Claro started Dominó in 2010, after years working as a chef and running his own restaurant, ‘Claro’, in Paço de Arcos, a resort town outside Lisbon. His career as a chef earned him high praise, and the cult status of his restaurant put him in touch with some of the key players of the wine industry in Portugal. One of them was Dirk Niepoort, the maverick Douro (and beyond) winemaker and producer, who motivated Vitor to pursue a new career, that of a vigneron. After a chance visit to a vineyard in Portalegre, in the Alentejo, Vitor and his wife Rita decided that they wanted to make wine from the old vines they saw, and with the help of Niepoort set out to learn to make wine and work the land.

A decade later, Vitor and Rita are now confirmed vignerons, working vines and making wines from the diverse landscapes of Portugal, a challenging but rewarding endeavor. As a chef Vitor understands how to combine all the different ingredients of the Portuguese terroir and its micro-climates in order to make the wines he wants and likes: fresher wines with bright acidity and clean palates.