v puro
João Soares & Nuno Mira do Ó
Cadoiços Valley
bairrada - portugal
story…
The first of what would become several wine projects for Nuno Mira do Ó. V Puro was established in 2009 between two good friends Nuno Mira do Ó & João Soares. The two met while attending agricultural engineering school & have remained close ever since. The idea for the V Puro label came to them after spending some time tasting through old cellars in the Bairrada & specifically after a singular experience with an old bottling of Baga they tasted from a small farmer/producer. The wine, although quite old, had retained so much freshness & purity of fruit that completely changed their mentality of what was capable from Baga & the Bairrada region as a whole. This experience sent them on a hunt for old vine vineyards to potentially work with in the region in hopes of producing a wine that could give them a similar experience that they had had with that “light bulb” moment bottle. At the time of this experience Nuno was working in the Dão region for another winery & João was working for a large winery in the Bairrada region, which he still works for to this day. Once they found some parcels of vines that could allow this vision to come to fruition they jumped at the opportunity & haven’t looked back since.
Working with vineyards ranging from 25-100+ year old vines, with the prized vineyard containing 80-120+ year old vines of Baga. The two produce a range of classic & traditional wines of the Bairrada region with the common goal of only bottling wine with fruit from a single source; whether that be a single vineyard or a single plot within that vineyard. They do not blend vineyard sites to produce any of the wines, the goal here is express & showcase the beauty of diversity that is find in this ancient vines & unique terroirs.
farming & Philosophy…
As you might expect the farming & philosophy in the cellar is done with a minimalist touch. Their clear focus on allowing the old vine fruit & unique differences of the terroirs from which they come has led them to maintain a gentle hand in all aspects of their work. Vineyards are all maintained by hand, mechanization isn’t even an option if they wanted it to be, which they don’t.
Cellar work varies from one parcel to the next dependant that parcels needs, however most of the work is summed up under the following methods. All of the wines are fermented natively & are typically slow fermentations. The whites are fermented in old barrels, except Arinto which is always fermented in stainless steel. The whites are then aged around 12 months on the fine lees before being bottled & aged further in bottle before release. The reds are mostly fermented in large open lagares with some being fermented in old oak vats, with little to no forced extractions. All of the reds age in oak barrels or vats for anywhere between 12-24 months before being bottled.
Vineyards…
Their vineyards are located in the Cadoiços Valley near the city of Mealhada, which is 30 km east of the Atlantic Ocean. There are no natural barriers between the vineyards & the effects of the ocean, giving this inland valley a very coastal Atlantic climate. The soils here are primarily clay/limestone with some plots containing deeper deposits of clayey soils than others as well as some calcareous deposits. The primary white grape in their vineyards is Bical but they also have smaller plantings for both Sercial & Arinto. The red vines consist mostly of Baga, the grape that started this journey in the first place, but they also have plantings of Touriga Nacional.
