2023 Dominio do Açor Vila Romana Branco

92+ points, The Wine Advocate
"The regular Branco has been renamed to 2023 Vila Romana Branco, which has a different blend, 82% Encruzado and 18% Cerceal and Bical; it no longer has Malvasia Fina, which was uprooted. It fermented in different materials and also for the aging, part in oak, part without. It has a clean and fresh nose, with notes of white flowers and fruit, with faint spice and smoke. It comes in at 13% alcohol, with a pH of 3.43 and 5.42 grams of acidity, and it's fresh and balanced, sapid and with a salty twist in the finish. 4,456 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2025.

"Domínio do Açor continues to be one of the most exciting new names in Portugal in recent years. A group of Brazilian wine enthusiasts led by sommelier Guilherme Corrêa and Igor Beron purchased a historic domaine with 11 hectares of old vines in Dão, in the subzone of Terras de Senhorim. The vineyards are organically farmed, and they are working toward the certification.

"The winemaker is Luis Lopes (previously at Quinta da Pellada), who also has his own personal project, Moreish. They hired terroir consultant Pedro Parra to analyze the soils and Marco Simonit to work on the pruning and now another consultant to revive the life of their soils, Josep Ramon from Geaorganica. They have been regrafting some varieties, and not all the vineyards are yet in production. They are in the process of obtaining the organic certification, which they should achieve in 2026.

"We tasted wines mostly from 2023 and a couple from 2022. In 2023, the wines show the effect of the change in the pruning in a less warm and dry year, their finest vintage so far, even though the conditions of 2023 were not as good as the ones from 2021. But in 2023, they had much better knowledge of their vineyards and grapes. 2022 was very warm and dry and they had some difficulties finishing the fermentations, which were easier in 2023. In 2024, yields were very low because of problems with fruit setting and some mildew. In 2025, there was a lot of mildew. Both 2024 and 2025 had long heat waves in the summer, especially in 2025. All the wines ferment with indigenous yeasts. In 2023, they produced 50,000 bottles." - Luis Gutierrez