Howard's Folly

About Winery and Wines

Howard's Folly is a small producer of wine from the Alentejoregion of Portugal. The winemaker, David Baverstock, is an Australian by nationality but long time Portuguese resident who is credited with revolutionizing the Portuguese wine industry by introducing new world techniques to old world material.

He has won the Portuguese Red Wine Trophy at both the 1999 and 2002 International Wine Challenges, as well as winemaker of the year (Portugal) 1999, the first non PortugueseWinemaker to do so. He is the head winemaker for the world famous Herdadedo Esporão.

Our main vineyard is 7 hectares of 20-25 year old vines in Portalegre, deep in the Alentejo countryside, where the climate is cooler. This allows us to make wines with superior freshness, elegance and finesse.
We have contracts with many local farmers who have small plots of ancient vines producing complex, low-yielding and intense mixes of different grape varieties. We use these grapes to make super premium single vineyard wines or blends of supreme quality.

We grow six main varietals in our vineyards: Touriga Nacional, Syrah, Aragonez, Alicante Bouchet, Trincadeira, Alvarinho.