Graft Wine welcomes up-and-coming Portuguese winery into its family
London-based importer Graft Wine has announced the addition of Freire Lobo, an organically farmed, high-altitude estate, to its diverse portfolio.
Based in the Dão region, Freire Lobo is run by Elisa Freire Lobo (pictured), who returned home after undertaking “formative internships in Bairrada and the Douro that sparked her passion for wine in the late 1990s.”
According to Graft Wine: “In 2010, she began transforming the family vineyards through organic and sustainable viticulture, focusing on soil health and biodiversity. Herbicides were eliminated, cover crops planted to enrich the granitic soils, and the family’s Bordaleiras sheep now graze and fertilise the vineyards through winter. Beehives were added in 2018 to further support the ecosystem after the 2017 wildfires.”
Dão is one of Portugal's oldest demarcated regions, renowned for its granite-based soils, hilly terrain and high-altitude vineyards.
The Freire Lobo estate currently farms at between 560 and 600 metres in Oliveira do Hospital, surrounded by four mountains - Serra da Estrela, Colcurinho, Açor, and Caramulo. “This high-altitude granite terrain, with its dramatic day–night temperature shifts, underpins the elegance, minerality, and refined balance that give Freire Lobo wines their distinctive Dão character,” said Freire Lobo.
She continued: “The first vintage was produced in 2014, using only traditional Portuguese grape varieties. My non-interventionist approach - manual harvest, foot-treading, native yeasts, co-fermentation, and concrete ageing - preserves the purity and freshness of the Dão.”
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