The project called "Elite Vinhos" is a story of affinities. Everything starts in 2014, in Reguengos de Monsaraz, with the friendship of two couples from three countries.
After selling part of their business, Christian Vermet (French) and his wife Mary Wilkinson (Irish) started looking for a new project to work on together, fell in love with Alentejo, and bought the "Herdade de Ceuta" with 3 hectares of vines. As it happens, they quickly became even more enthusiastic about viticulture.
The other half is owned by the Portuguese couple Filipe Perdiz and Helena Godinho, who also owned vineyards. Both have professional careers in oenology.
Wine led the two couples to meet. They became friends and the idea of making high-quality wines together, from their own grapes, came naturally.
From this friendship and partnership, Elite Vinhos was born in 2017. They soon acquired more vines, built a winery and the first wines were born. Today they have 110 hectares of vineyards, although currently only 20% of their grapes are used to make their wines. The long-term goals is to use 100% of the grapes and expand the storage area to 150,000 bottles.
Next to the winery, there is a wine store (with a second wine store at the Reguengos Castle), a modern wine bar and tasting room. To complete the package, there's another versatile space ready for cultural events, group meals, meetings, etc.
From the medieval town of Monsaraz, one of the oldest settlements in Portugal, and look around, it's clear that vines and olive trees have a very strong presence here. Reguengos, just two-hours from Lisbon (175 km) by car, is one of the eight wine-growing sub-regions of Alentejo. Many people don't know that this is the sub-region in Alentejo with the highest wine density AND the largest vineyard area, with roughly 4,000 hectares!
Filipe Perdiz, Elite's executive director and head winemaker, graduated from the University of Évora as an Agricultural Engineer. He worked for 20 years as a Viticulture Technician at ATEVA (Technical Association of Alentejo Viticulturists), which gave him an in-depth knowledge of the terroirs, vineyards, and indigenous grape varieties in Alentejo. He also has a very good pulse on all the technological developments taken place in the region.
Because of Filipe's experience and curiosity, some of Elite Vinhos' vineyards are spaces for experimentation, authentic "laboratories" in the open. In collaboration with PORVID (Portuguese Association for Vine Diversity), they carry out clonal selection studies and have made their land available for trials, such as a natural plant-based herbicide as an alternative to glyphosate. One of Filipe's objectives is to reduce as much as possible the use and residues of pharmaceutical products.
Filipe seems to have a missionary spirit. He claims to "enjoy difficult challenges".
In the past he ran for the presidency of CARMIM (Cooperativa AgrÃcola de Reguengos de Monsaraz), but didn't win. Which is a good thing, otherwise Elite Vinhos might not exist today.
Filipe has been able to achieve his long-held dream of being a winemaker at his own winery.
Just a couple of kilometers from the winery, we pass São Pedro do Corval, the epicenter of Portugal's pottery production. There are many "pottery" signs everywhere and Filipe mentions that there are still some artisans making pottery with traditional methods. Music to our ears. Soon we have to return to this village and meet these artisans. After all, Filipe knows everybody and everybody knows him.
We arrive at one of the vineyards, their first one planted in 2009. It's on a hill, one of the many that shape the orography of the area and defeats the idea that Alentejo is all flat.
The soil is clay-limestone with schist. Here Filipe has Touriga Nacional to produce a wonderful Rosé wine that has won several awards. It's a wine without exuberance, but fragrant, with a very dry and structured palate, surprising for its acidity and freshness, qualities many people don't associate with Alentejo.
We continue on to another vineyard, this one in a lowland with a rural dwelling that at some point will become a restaurant. On another plot, separated by a narrow road, we visit a very special Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard that "only yields 2 tons per hectare, but produces great quality". Despite working with some international grape varieties, Filipe attributes the core of the project to Perrum and Moreto.
We had lunch at the Taverna Os Templários right in the middle of the medieval Castle of Monsaraz. Imagine a fairy tale, but better.
Througout the day, at the winery, vineards and at the table, it is evident how Elite Vinhos is planning the future without renouncing to its regional ampelographic heritage. Not an easy balance, but we are confident that they will achieve it, and we will talk more about that on our next story. Stay tuned!