Red Wine

Ponte Mouchão

2020, 75cl

Alentejo

Ponte Mouchão

The Ponte Mouchão wine, the flagship of the estate’s blended wines, has already won over many enthusiasts. Following the ancestral winemaking techniques of Mouchão, with hand-harvesting and foot treading in lagares, and aged in used French oak barrels and old casks for 18 months, it then ages in the bottle for an additional 18 months before being released to the market.

At Mouchão, all reds are vinified in open stone wine pressers. Whole bunches, with stems, are included in the maceration process, so the harvest time is particularly critical, as it is necessary to find a delicate balance between sugars, acids, and overall phenolic ripeness. The whole bunches, hand-harvested, are transported in 20 kg boxes to the cellar, where they are trodden and left to ferment for about 5 to 8 days. This young wine will undergo its malolactic fermentation in the fall, in large wooden vats (5,000 L). In mid-winter, it is filtered, after which it ages without intervention for about 18 months. Once bottled, it ages in our cellars for another 18 months before being released to the market.

Viticulture: Well-drained alluvial soils mixed with red clayey Mediterranean soils (Adega and Ponte vineyards), with an average age of 19 years at harvest. Vineyard plots and varieties are harvested separately. The complex and characterful Touriga Franca comes from the Ponte vineyard, with about 16 years of age. The fragrant Touriga Nacionaland fleshy Syrah both come from the Adega vineyard, with about 20 years of age (between the cellar and the Almadafe river).

Allergens information

Contains sulphites.

Herdade do Mouchão

The fine, rolling landscape of Portugal’s Alentejo region, set between Lisbon and the Algarve, is dominated by cork forests and olive groves. In the early 19th century, Thomas Reynolds moved here from Oporto, chiefly to become involved in the cork business. Three generations later, his grandson, John Reynolds, purchased a 900 hectare property with two small rivers running through it – Herdade do Mouchão. In addition to the family’s cork activities, he set about making wine. Vineyards were planted and in 1901 he built a high-ceilinged adobe winery (or “adega”) with white washed walls and a traditional red-tiled roof. A distillery was added to the winery in 1929, where until today Mouchão’s pommace brandy is produced. During the 1950’s. While the estate continued to produce cork, olives, cereals and to rear pigs and sheep (much as it does today), the wine business began to expand. More vines were planted, the winemaking improved and bottled sales began, replacing the old tradition of wine made purely for bulk sale to local towns and villages.
Following the 1974 revolution, the estate was expropriated and only returned to the family in 1985. Today, the Herdade do Mouchão continues to be run by the descendants of the original family whose cellar and vineyard workers have been with them for generations. The process is, as it always has been, unhurried. The grape varieties are local, picked by hand and foot-trodden. In the ever-changing world of winemaking, Herdade do Mouchão, remains a traditional, family-run winery.

Address

Vinhos da Cavaca Dourada, SA /
Sociedade Agro-Pecuária do Mouchão e Cavaca Dourada, SA

Herdade do Mouchão
7470-153 Casa Branca
Portugal