Mogadouro, Portugal

Rich & Fruity

The Arribas Wine Company project began in 2017, when winemakers Frederico Machado and Ricardo Alves decided that the time to start a more personal project had arrived. The quest for diversity and a spot with unique characteristics took them to Bemposta, a small village in the far north of Portugal. This just happened to be near Mogadouro, where the grandparents of one of the founders were born. There they found very old vineyards, some of them recently abandoned.

From the regeneration of their first plot, less than 2 hectares, the first wine of Saroto was made. Saroto is a local term used to designate an animal with its tail cut off. The lizard on the label symbolizes the capacity of regeneration and represents the winemaker’s desire to recover and preserve a rich and diverse heritage that otherwise would be lost.

The grapes used to make Arribas Saroto Rosé are hand-harvested and foot-trodden in a traditional stone lagar. They are immediately pressed and racked into used French and Austrian oak barrels. Kept in barrel over lees for 7 months, the juice ferments naturally with indigenous yeast and without temperature control (wild fermentation) finishing both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations. This rosé wine is unfined and unfiltered and may present a deposit over time.