Antes de se tornar enóloga, Catarina foi uma bióloga que passou muitos anos a estudar a rela ibérica (leia mais aqui). Ela descobriu que as fêmeas desta espécie geralmente só respondem e acasalam com machos que cantam no dialeto “local”. Poderíamos dizer que estas fémias não correm riscos e estão satisfeitas com a segurança que proporcionam as convenções de género e os sistemas de parentalidade relacionados. Mas esta é apenas metade da história. O trabalho de Catarina mostra também que algumas fémias se apaixonam pela beleza única e o feitiço de um macho estrangeiro que passa pelo seu lago, e o amor acontece. Embora isto aconteça apenas em muito poucos casos, são estes casais que trazem inovação à população de rãs a nível genético e na vida social em geral. Menos de um % da mudança numa geração gera mudanças em grande escala quando consideradas ao longo de várias gerações. Pequenas diferenças criam atritos que nos desafiam a repensar o que consideramos garantido e nos permitem moldar novas formas de estar no mundo. E é precisamente assim que nós, na Adega Belém, encaramos a nossa abordagem ao vinho e à vida em geral. Adotando uma atitude profundamente científica, um artesanato sofisticado e também um pouco de aleatoriedade natural, cada vinho é feito à mão a partir de uvas saudáveis cultivadas em paisagens agrícolas multiculturais; um produto único que reflecte o carácter varietal das nossas uvas, as condições ecológicas de cada vinha e ano de colheita, e o amor que nos leva a nós: os enólogos a fazer o que fazemos. Porque a vida romântica desta espécie fornece uma boa metáfora para o nosso tipo de abordagem, fizemos da rela ibérica o nosso animal totem e o logotipo da nossa empresa.
We started off as university researchers, Catarina as an evolutionary biologist exploring frog mating in Portugal and David as an anthropologist studying magical thinking in the Western Indian Ocean. We met at a barbecue party and have stayed together ever since.
We decided to make wine together and spent two years studying oenology and viticulture at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia at the University of Lisbon. A professional internship led us to the Alentejo region.
The first red is made in our bathroom back in the Santa Catarina neighbourhood of Lisboa. It smelled like a mixture of superglue, overcooked strawberry jam and oloroso sherry. We kept it for those guests who wouldn't leave. It was a rather curious wine.
We became Erasmus students for the first time in our lives and spent our second year of oenological studies with the Vinifera Euromaster Programme at the University of Geisenheim in Germany.
Catarina became an assistant winemaker at Provins in the Swiss Valais and later at Grande Enseada in Redondo, Portugal. In 2017, she became the resident winemaker of Herdade da Barrosinha in Alcacer do Sal, where she worked until 2019 with one of Portugal’s most senior winemakers, António Saramago.
Research in South Africa, California, Bordeaux, Austria and China funded by the University of Lausanne, Switzerland where David had become a full professor, helped clarify how to bring wine tourism into the 21st century. We realized that we needed the winery in the city where we want to live.
We started looking for urban industrial sites and found this old car repair shop in Belém. We instantly fell in love with its weird and wonderful space full of antiquated equipment in a great location. It would become our winery.
Two lawyers, four notaries and more than 70 neighbors helped us to update all legal documents linked to the land registry.
The project to transform the garage into a winery is submitted to the municipality of Lisbon.
The winery gets an earthquake-proof steel structure, new piping, new electric cabling, fire doors and an energy saving roof.
Ten custom made stainless steel tanks, oak barrels, pumps, a destemmer and a horizontal press are put in the cellar. The winemaking equipment is ready for work.
The winery gets its winery license and is ready to operate.
After an intensive year of demolition works, masonry, carpentry, plumbing, plastering, painting, dealing with contractors and website programming, the winery is ready to open to the public. The Corona virus epidemics forces us to delay this til the summer.
While using other wineries for our 2018 and 2019 vintages, 2020 is the first full vintage produced in the Belém winery.
Evolutionary biologist and winemaker, Catarina is the social knot of the winery, she loves to read scientific articles, experiment with technologies and drink great wines. Her favorite Adega Belém wines are Alvarinho Curtimenta 2020 paired with the most delicious Arroz de Tamboril served at Marisqueira Promar in Porto Novo, and the Rabo da Rainha Grande Reserva 2020 accompanying a good book on a rainy afternoon.
Júlio is strong as a bear and has decisive ideas whenever all else fails. He is also known as Júber.
Anthropologist and winemaker, David used to roam through the Western Indian Ocean as an ethnographer and tourism development consultant, now doing participant observation of the social life of wild yeasts and kinship systems within the world of winehood. His favorite Adega Belém wines are the Viosinho Brut Nature Sparkling wine paired with Filipe Frazão´s Açorda de Gambas, and Senhor Rita Reserva together with an Iberian porc fillet grilled by our neigbor Frank.
Helena is a chemist and the best Portuguese grandmother in the world
Ana and Sofia draw with great talent and style the labels of most Adega Belém wines and have both a fine nose for exquisite wine, coming up with sometimes unexpected metaphores and aroma descriptors, hence enriching our family business and growing into the world of wine.
Knows all about wine, is extremely patient, knows how to tell good stories, speaks 27 languages
Lili is a professional tennis ball fetcher and keeps the whole team including all guests and passers-by together
Has a lot of patience, will to learn, endurance, muscle power, appetite and a driving licence.