António Marques da Cruz (Quinta da Serradinha) and Tiago Teles got together for a viticulture and winemaking project. Back in 2015, the plan was to recover "Vila Nova", an old vineyard of the Baga grape variety at Quinta dos Cozinheiros, located in Figueira da Foz.
COZs, is short for cooks ("cozinheiros" in Portuguese) and refers to the beginning of working together at the Cooks' Farm.
From that year they went south, to Serra de Montejunto, 60 km north of Lisbon and still within the Lisbon wine region. They worked the grape variety Vital with ages ranging from 30 to 50 years old, scattered over seven organic plots, 15 km from the Atlantic Ocean and between 200 and 300 meters of altitude, on limestone soils.
The main objective was, and still is, to try to recover the Vital grape variety from these old and abandoned vineyards, and to preserve their genetic heritage.
Since 2018, they have been vinifying the Vital grape variety, at Quinta do Olival da Murta, in borrowed space, along with the Arinto grape variety and the red Castelão planted around the winery.
Their concept is to try to make "wines of geography," harvesting the grapes at "the ideal point of ripeness and with care and some simplicity, trying to ensure that this identity goes into the glass."
The Vital grape is well adapted to the Serra do Montejunto. The climate in the mountains is somewhat extreme, which is one of the reasons why Vital resides there. It is a vine in which the sticks hold up well in strong winds and do not break easily. At the same time, it is the grape variety that puts António and Tiago's skills to the test the most, because the various orientations of the parcels force the harvest to be done at different times. But this does not discourage them. Quite the contrary. They take the opportunity to show this difference with two wines from Vital according to the particularities given by the positioning of the parcels. Vital is not an imposing variety, "it doesn't have very recognizable aromas and flavors, it likes to lead the place where it is".
Therefore the abbreviations "vp, vo, vm" are the name of each of the plots from which the grapes come.
The COZs vp Vital 2021, is born in the Pena Vineyard, António and Tiago's first vineyard in Montejunto. It is northwest oriented, with cool nights and relatively cool summer days, in clay-limestone soils. At the winery, the grapes are macerated for a few days in an open wine press, and then fermented in 228 liter barrels, where they are aged for a year.
The COZs vo Vital 2021 comes from the Outeiro Vineyard, this time with southern exposure which makes it ripen earlier and the first to harvest. Longer maceration than the Vp, Vital fermented with indigenous yeasts in 1000 liter vats and aged in old Burgundy barrels for 11 months.
Coz vm Castelão 2021, comes from Qta do Olival da Murta, from a plot that is always the last to be harvested due to the difficulty of tannin maturation. Fermented with indigenous yeasts in 1,000 liter tanks and aged in used wood barrels for 11 months. None of the wines are filtered, clarified, or added sulfur.
For António and Tiago, their commitment is "the pursuit of quality and a sense of place, marked by elegance and simplicity."
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