Frogs + ♥ = wine
Before becoming a winemaker, Catarina worked as an evolutionary biologist and spent many years studying the Iberian tree frog. She discovered that the female frogs generally only respond to, and mate with, males who call in the local frog-dialect. She also discovered that some females fall for the unique spell of a foreign male passing by their pond, and love happens. She showed that, while statistically “outliers”, these mixed couples brought significant innovation to the frog population at a genetic level and in social life in general. Because the romantic life of tree frogs provides such a good metaphor for our approach to winemaking, we have made it our totem animal and company logo. We believe that the confrontation with differences challenges us to rethink what we hold for granted and to create our own ways of living and loving in this world.
Before 2013
We started off as university researchers, Catarina as an evolutionary biologist exploring frog mating in Portugal and David as an anthropologist studying coral reef protection and magical thinking in the Western Indian Ocean. We met at a barbecue party during the summer of 2009 and stayed together ever since.
2013 Back to School
We decided to make wine together and started a two-year master programme in oenology and viticulture at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia at the University of Lisbon in 2013. A professional internship led us to the Alentejo region. We became Erasmus students and spent our second year of studies at the Vinifera Euromaster Programme, University of Geisenheim in Germany.
First batch of “bathroom” red
Our first-ever batch of red wine we made in the bathroom of our flat in Santa Catarina in Lisboa. It smelled like a mixture of superglue, overcooked strawberry jam and oloroso sherry. We kept it for those guests who wouldn’t leave.
2015 Travelling winemaker years
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.
2015 Wine tourism research around the world
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 to take the winery where we want to live and work: in the heart of the city of Lisbon!
2016 Car repair shop into winery
We found an 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. We bought the place to transform it into our winery. Two lawyers, four notaries and more than 70 neighbors helped us to update all legal documents linked to the land registry. The winery got an earthquake-proof steel structure, new piping, new electric cabling, fire doors and an energy saving roof.
2020 The big opening
After an intensive year of demolition works, masonry, carpentry, plumbing, plastering, painting, dealing with contractors and website programming, we got our winery license and were ready to operate in early 2020. The Corona virus epidemics forced us to delay this til the summer. 2023 was the first year in which our company broke even and did earn money. Yet, the old saying: “If you wish to earn a small fortune with a winery, start with a large one” remains true: running a winery means hard physical work, long hours, a lot of money immobilized and low income. Work starts all over again every year. But we are free and can self-determine what we do, who we are, what wines we like to produce!