Casa da Passarella

The Dão is south from The Douro Valley, inland towards the Spanish border. It’s high country, bound on all sides by mountains, particularly the spectacular Serra de Estrela on the Spanish border. Here, wine is grown between 400 and 700 metres in cold granitic soils. The mountains protect from continental extremes of temperature and also from drenching Atlantic rains – nevertheless rain averages 47 inches, albeit most in winter. Summers are mild and dry.

As with most Northern Portuguese wine regions, the Dão is typified by very small land-holdings. Dão reds in the past tended towards over-ageing and an over-dependence on oak, but have changed greatly over the last two decades. Until the 1990s, production was dominated by complacent cooperatives and the resulting wines were tough, tannic and unlovely. There is great potential here for good growing and sensitive handling to yield expressive red wines with smooth tannins and natural freshness.

Casa da Passarella was founded in 1892, before Dão was demarcated as a wine region (in 1908), and are founders of the region. Casa da Passarella’s founder, Amand D’Oliveira made his fortune in Brazil then returned home to found a winery (the eponymous ‘Casa’ is a Brazilian-style pile). Having fallen into disrepair, Passarella was acquired by Ricardo Cabral in 2007, and then restored. Talented winemaker Paulo Nunes was appointed to renovate the wine program. Nowadays, Passarella is a holding of 100 hectares, 60 of which are vine land (much of it around 100 years’ vine age).

There are seven cultivars planted: Encruzado, Verdelho and Malvasia Fina whites; Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Jaen and Alfrocheiro reds. Handling is traditional, in concrete vats and large old wood, with fruit manually crushed by ancient devices. Passarella is in the Serra de Estrela – very high, cold and poor soils in the ‘mountain to the stars’, the pass separating Portugal from Spain. The climate is Continental, at an altitude of 600 metres and allows for long hang times, resulting in sleek ripe tannins, excellent acidity and overall freshness.