While heading from Lisbon to Porto, you’ll find Portugal's most intriguing wine region tucked along the coast. It’s a stormy, sandy, limestone stretch that produces a dizzying mix of wines that we can’t stop pulling corks on. Some bottles are crunchy and bracing, others are as noble and powerful as your favorite Serralunga Barolo (yes - that one).

The place is Bairrada, and its native grape we’re crushing on is Baga – a duo which confidently captures time and place with extreme detail, not unlike Nebbiolo in Piedmont or Pinot Noir in Burgundy.

It’s tiny in comparison to its neighboring DOs, but what it lacks in land mass it makes up for in quality and utterly charming individuality. We can't help but dig into what makes this region so special.

THE CLIMATE

The coast of Portugal has a distinctly cool but humid maritime climate, with especially ample rainfall. But incredibly fresh acidity (driven by a hefty diurnal shift) protects the grapes from this humidity, rendering high-tone, aromatic wines which are also pleasantly low in alcohol.

A misty vineyard in Bairrada, photo via GK Selections

THE SOIL

Bairrada has perhaps the most unique coastal minerality to be found–owed to the sandy limestone-studded cliffs towering mere feet from the ocean. Beyond salinity, it’s a deeper expression of ocean-weathered fossils and the most natural foundation for the region’s indigenous varieties. More from importer GK Selections here!

Vineyard in Bairrada, photo via NLC Wines

THE GRAPES

Castelão, Alfrocheiro, Touriga Nacional, Maria Gomes, and Bical – all native to the region; but Baga offers the most striking expression of Bairrada’s terroir. When joined with more elegant macerations (it has quite the thick skin) and that fresh coastal acidity, the result is elegant, aromatic, long-lived and terroir-specific wine.

THE PERSPECTIVE

Luis Pato