"Um verdadeiro desafio aos Carcavelos clássicos, não só pela casta utilizada, por ser estreme e também por ser tão jovem. Um licoroso com boa estrutura e equilíbrio, em que a fruta está muto viva e a aguardente vínica completamente integrada. Um belo exemplar, fresco, gastronómico." 
Fernando Blasco Lopez

"Está tão bom, tão pronto e tão harmonioso, que proporciona desde já uma prova extraordinariamente prazerosa! E, ainda mais por isso mesmo, dá também uma enorme vontade de que seja guardado umas boas décadas, de modo a que se possa confirmar todo o seu aparentemente prodigioso potencial de envelhecimento em garrafa!

Raul Lufinha @mesadochef

Made of Castelão grapes planted in the vineyard of Quinta de São José de Caparide, a priest seminar on the coast of Estoril, within the DOP Carcavelos. Located on the Cascais peninsula in the northwest of Lisbon, the vineyard is planted less than a kilometer away from the south facing bay of Estoril and shielded from the north-western Atlantic winds by the western slopes of the Sintra mountain range.

The constant cool breeze combined with hot afternoons allow the grapes to slowly ripen over an extended period and reduce fungal disease risks. Handpicked in early September, the grapes are de-stemmed and crushed, and ferment spontaneously in open vats until reaching 60gr of sugar/L (about 3-4 days). The fermentation is then stopped through the addition of brandy (aguardente vínica) bringing the wine to 17,5% alcohol. We left the wine then in a steel tank at the winery in Belém for an additional 6-month post-fermentative on skin maceration, with a montly bâtonnage, to complexify its aroma profile and increase the concentration of skin tannins. After pressing, the wine spent two more years in our barrel cellar to slowly age in neutral French oak barriques.

For using red grapes only and having aged for two years in oak barrels, with still fresh red fruit aromas, especially cherry, raspberry, and plum, almond, eucalyptus, spices, and the DOP Carcavelos-typical salty fim de boca. This very first colheita comes in a limited edition of 500 bottles only, in 50cl bottles with high quality monolithic corks.

Adega Belém DOP Carcavelos is good to drink now, or age for another 10 to 100 years.