mira do ó
Nuno Mira do Ó
dão - portugal
story…
Nuno Mira do Ó made his way to the wine world in 2001 after completing a degree in agricultural engineering. While in college he fell in love with wine which is what lead him to work in wine, as well as getting his Oenology degree, as opposed to joining the industrial farming sector via his agricultural engineering degree. First spending time in the Dão region producing wines for others before a chance encounter with an old bottle of Baga while visiting the Bairrada region kick started an obsession with seeking out old vines & unique sites all across Portugal. Following that experience with the old bottle of Baga he co-founded the V Puro label with his friend João Soares in 2009, João was already working in the Bairrada region at this time. Then a few years later he returned to the Dão to establish his namesake project, Mira do Ó. Today he has his hands in three seperate projects across the northern half of Portugal: V Puro in Bairrada, Mira do Ó in the Dão, & most recently the Sou wines in Vinho Verde with Joana Santiago of Quinta de Santiago.
Mira do Ó represents Nuno’s dedication to the potential greatness of Portuguese wines through sustainably farming & minimal intervention. In his words, “it’s all about the grapes”. Primarily working with several sites in the São João de Lourosa area just north of the Serra da Estrela sub-region of the Dão & one site in the Lisboa region of Bucelas. Within the Mira do Ó label exists a sort of sub label called “Druida” named for the ancient Celtic druids whose connection to the earth & plants led their culture to work towards an equilibrium with nature. This druid philosophy is also a mirror of Nuno’s work in wine, constantly seeking a balance between the soil, climate, vines & his work as a winemaker/grapegrower.
farming & Philosophy…
Nuno’s search to find & maintain the balance between man, vine, soil, & climate drives all of his work both in the vineyard & cellar. Working like a guide for the grapes to reach their full potential on the vine before bringing them into the cellar to blossom into the final wine. Farming practices are rooted in organics but there is not exact or dogmatic approach to anything. Each vineyard is treated as its own universe & the farming is tailored to that site based on it’s needs.
Like the farming, each wine, parcel or lot is treated differently in the cellar depending on the expression of the grape(s) vintage & place. Overall the work is minimalistic; the fruit is all hand harvested & sorted. All fermentations occur on native/ambient yeasts, extractions & oak usage are done with the idea of enhancing the wines inherent beauty, not to overwhelm it. In the cellar you will find a wide range of fermentation & aging vessels from stainless steel, cement lagares, & all sizes of oak barrels, mostly neutral but there is a small percentage of new oak employed on certain cuvée’s & vintages.
Vineyards…
The vineyard sites in the Dão all sit on a plateau at about 500 masl on the right bank of the Dão river. Here the local varieties consist of Encruzado (the queen of white wine in the Dão) & Jaen, Alfrocheiro, Baga, Touriga Nacional & Tinta Pinheira are the most widely planted. The vines sit in granite bedrock with a high proportion of clay topsoil that gives balance to the soils & helps promote richness in the wines.
In Bucelas, which is 20 km north of Lisbon, the vineyard is planted exclusively to white varieties & in this region the queen is Arinto. Bucelas is a subregion of the greater Lisboa region that extends just north of the city of Lisbon along the coast. Here the soils are limestone based with a healthy mix of clay & the climate is heavily influenced by the Atlantic which is only 20-30 km west of Bucelas. The wine Nuno produces from this site is vinified in a rented garage in the region so that he can fit the guidelines in order to label the wine as being from Bucelas.
