Tiago Teles

Tiago Teles is a well-rounded character in the world of wine, having started out in the unsuspected profession of telecommunications engineer. His years of travelling and tasting around the planet between 2002 and 2008, which marked his career as a writer, wine critic and editor of wine guides, allowed him to build up a vast theoretical knowledge of terroir, viticulture, agriculture and the cultural nuances surrounding wine in his native Portugal. Armed with this heavy cultural baggage, Tiago plans to cross the mirror and get involved himself. Thus, in 2012 he decided to move permanently to the region of Bairrada, where his family comes from, and to start planting a vineyard together with his father. Over the next decade, he was then able to turn all the knowledge he had acquired about vines and wine into practical knowledge, turning it into a life project as well as a job.
Tiago Teles manages approximately 6 hectares of vineyards scattered in different parts of Portugal. The original core of the business is based in the small territory of Bairrada, one of the most prestigious wine-growing regions in Portugal: it is bordered to the east by the Caramulo and Buçaco plateaus, while to the west the Atlantic is only a few kilometres away. In the villages of São Mateus and Valdazar, the soils are essentially limestone, highly suitable for the local black berries Castellão, Alfrochiero and Bical. In 2015, an old estate full of childhood memories was restored near Arcos de Valdevez, within the large Vinho Verde region: the valley cut in a north-south direction by the rio Vez is characterised by granitic soils, with the ocean at a short distance and Galicia some thirty kilometres to the north. The varieties grown are indigenous white berries: Loureiro, Trajadura and Paderna. In the same year, a new project was inaugurated, in the company of Antonio Marques da Cruz, on the territory of Quinta dos Cozinheiros, just south of Figueira da Foz: the two winegrowers recovered old vineyards that had been abandoned in the early 2000s, on clay-limestone soils very close to the coast. It is home to red grape varieties, dominated by Baga, and white grape varieties, such as Mariagomes and Arinto. Common to all terroirs is the organic approach to field work.
Tiago Teles pursues vinification without manipulation, using only indigenous yeasts and dosing sulphites to a minimum. Fermentation takes place in barriques or cement, with light extractions and a search for balanced alcohol levels, aiming to preserve the mineral and vegetable expressions of the different terroirs. Ageing takes place both in old oak barrels and in cement vats.