Antonio Maçanita

The Maçanita winery is located on the right bank of the Douro River, in the heart of the Douro region, 20 mins from Pinhão in the sub-region of Cima Corgo. A boutique winery that produces around 80,000 bottles of red, white and rosé wines per year. More recently, it has embarked on the world of Port wine production, with the first wines expected soon.

At the Maçanita Winery, the winemaking process is non-intrusive, and the aim is to bring the Douro terroir to the bottle. With a very diverse set of wines, the Maçanita winery produces monovarietal wines, such as the 100% Touriga Nacional Cima Corgo and the 100% Touriga Nacional Letra A, two wines, the same grape variety at different altitudes, and multi-variety wines from old vineyards at high-altitude on granite, to the oxidative Malvasia fina from the Baixo Corgo and the extreme 100% Arinto with its pulsating acidity. Each one of these wines is the result of a restless exploration by the Maçanita siblings who, vineyard by vineyard, seek to transmit a distinct personality from each corner of the Douro Valley.

Maçanita Winemaking has a minimalist, non-interventionist approach. The magic is in the vineyards and the places where the grapes come from, the siblings have a philosophy that defies convention. Smashing stereotypes and searching for the small treasures of the Douro with an open mind.

The white wines, Maçanita Branco, Gouveio by Joaninha, and Folgasão from both siblings, are Joana Maçanita's main focus at the beginning of each harvest. Her winemaking always seeks to respect the fruit and purity of the grapes. The white grapes are pressed whole bunch without de-stemming, then gently pressed in a pneumatic press, without adding sulfur. In the Maçanita winery, the red grapes are always moved without pumps. The use of mass pumps is forbidden, and the grapes are carried inside the winery.

The harvest is made for 20 kg boxes and the grapes are selected on a sorting table. At the Maçanita Winery, everything that shouldn't be there is removed, such as dry leaves, green leaves, or defective grapes. Then, through gravity, the grapes enter a de-stemmer that simply bursts the grape berry, so that the juice slowly exits throughout the three stages of alcoholic fermentation.