The new Lisboa: Rodrigo Martins and Espera
Simon visits consultant and natural winemaker Rodrigo Martins, to learn about his change to working exclusively with organic viticulture and his personal Espera project. We also talk about his frustration with the DOC classification process in Lisboa.
Consultant winemakers - oenologists as they're officially known in the trade - have a certain image. Often, they're the ones who went to winemaking school and learned about the tech, how important it is to use the right selected yeasts and enzymes for fermentation and how you need to be sure to sterile filter your wines so that supermarkets can purchase with confidence.
They're a breed usually hired by larger, more commercial wineries, who will retain a jobbing winemaker onsite and then fly in the consultant to add an extra veneer of professionalism and experience. That term 'oenology' is key - these guys are concerned more with what happens in the cellar, than with what might have happened in the vineyard. They're there to make sure that actual winemaking takes place.
But speak to most growers on the natural wine/minimal intervention side of the industry, and they'll say the last thing they want is an oenologist coming and invoking actual winemaking. If the grapes are perfect, the cell…
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