Samarra, Ferreira e Claro, 2021
THE PRODUCERS: RITA FERREIRA & VÍTOR CLARO
Vítor Claro's route into wine ran through the kitchen, not the vineyard. A well-regarded figure among Lisbon-area chefs from 2010 to 2016, he ran his own acclaimed restaurant in Paço de Arcos before a chance connection changed the course of his career: Dirk Niepoort, the maverick Douro producer and one of Portugal's most influential winemaking voices, took him under his wing and encouraged him to swap the kitchen for the vineyard entirely. When Vítor's own oenologist dropped out on the eve of his first harvest, it was Niepoort's advice that stuck with him: don't replace him — "make it simple, make it pure."
Vítor and his wife Rita Ferreira began with 2.5 hectares of old, near-forgotten vines above Portalegre, in the cool northern reaches of the Alentejo, under the name Dominó. Buoyed by that early success, the pair went looking closer to home, and found it in two of Lisbon's most historic — and most endangered — wine regions: Carcavelos and Colares, both almost entirely swallowed by property development over the last century. Farming these last remaining pockets of vine has become as much an act of preservation as winemaking, and it's here that the Ferreira & Claro label, distinct from their Dominó range, was born.
THE WINE: SAMARRA 2021 (revised)
Samarra is sourced from Castelão and Touriga Nacional vines in Carcavelos, on clay-limestone soils just 1.5km from the Atlantic — vines around twenty years old, farmed on one of the last working fragments of a historic wine region nearly lost beneath Lisbon's coastal suburbs. Within Ferreira & Claro's small range, it sits as the deeper, more serious sibling to Fonte Fria — built for more structure and darker fruit, where Fonte Fria leans lighter and brighter.
TASTING NOTES
Colour: Deep ruby, with a darker core than the lighter reds in the range.
Nose: Brooding and layered — dark cherry and bramble fruit lead, with a peppery, savoury edge and a floral lift that keeps the intensity from tipping into heaviness. A faint whisper of oak spice sits underneath, a mark of Touriga Nacional's structure coming through.
Palate: Full and textured, dark fruit and fine, grainy tannin giving real backbone, balanced by the same fresh acidity that runs through the rest of the producers' range. A savoury, spiced thread carries through the mid-palate, with the wine's coastal, saline character keeping it from feeling too weighty.
Finish: Long for the style, dark fruit and spice lingering alongside a faint mineral, saline note — the clay-limestone terroir and the Atlantic proximity both showing through.
Serve: A touch cooler than room temperature, in a standard red wine glass. This has enough structure to pair with richer fare than Fonte Fria — grilled octopus with chorizo, roast duck, or aged cheese — while keeping the freshness that makes Ferreira & Claro's wines so distinctive.