Red Wine

Mouchão

2017, 75cl

Alentejo

Mouchão

At Mouchão, all red wines are vinified in open stone lagares. Whole bunches, including stems, are used during maceration, making harvest timing especially critical — requiring a delicate balance between sugars, acidity, phenolic ripeness (aromas, color, tannins), and stem lignification.

The grapes, hand-harvested, are transported in 14 kg boxes to the winery, where they are foot-trodden in lagares and ferment for 4 to 6 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs in autumn in 5,000-liter wooden vats. In winter, the wine is lightly filtered and then aged in the same vats, without intervention, for 3 to 4 years. After bottling, it matures in Mouchão’s cellars for another 4 years before release.

VITICULTURE: Careful vineyard management is essential to ensure fruit quality and maintain a healthy ecosystem, including pollinators like bees. Each plot and grape variety is harvested separately. Alicante Bouschet and Trincadeira come from old vines, 29 years old at the time of harvest, planted in well-drained alluvial soils at Vinha dos Carrapetos. Since 2010, average yields have been just 4 t/ha, contributing to notable concentration.

A second Alicante Bouschet, riper and more intense, is also included. It comes from the Dourada vineyard, with Mediterranean clay-limestone soils, and is 20 years old.

THE 2017 VINTAGE: A harvest marked by uneven ripening between grape varieties, shaped by the climatic conditions. It required careful selection to preserve the final blend’s balance and complexity.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Decant or open 12 to 24 hours before serving. Best enjoyed before 2037. Serve at 17 °C, ideal with grilled meats or game dishes.

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