We've been travelling around the various wine regions and highlighting the many new things that the start of the year has brought us. We've reached the center of the country and will resume tomorrow with a focus on regions such as the Tejo and Alentejo, where many new projects deserve your attention.
There are projects that cut across all the regions and that deserve special mention, with Nat Cool probably being the most relevant, both because it was born in the mind of Dirk Niepoort, one of the driving forces behind DOC Douro wines, and because the wines are built on current market trends, based on the principle of less is more.
Dirk Niepoort is the driving force behind the Nat’Cool movement, an ode to life and to a Dionysian spirit of celebrating, to community and sharing. It is a project which unites various producers with one goal: to create light and easy-to-drink wines.
By light and easy-to-drink wines we mean wines with lower alcohol levels, where other elements, such as the aroma, mouthfeel, clarity and color of the wine, are given pride of place. Examples include the red “Drink Me”, produced in Bairrada, and the white “Drink Me”, which stems from the Vinho Verde region. These wines do not claim to be the best in the world, but they are the ones you will enjoy drinking time and time again because they provide unencumbered drinking pleasure.
The rules behind this movement are based on the commitment that there are no rules when building a wine. Other commitments are less alcohol, less extractions, authentic and organic wines with a cool attitude, bottled in 1 liter bottles and to reach the market at an affordable price.
Along the years more producers joined Dirk in this movement such as Márcio Lopes (Pequenos Rebentos in Vinho Verde), Luis Mota Capitão (Herdade do Cebolal in Setúbal) and Luís Seabra (Pormenor in Douro).
From North to South you will find your Nat Cool wine, all different in styles but all sharing the same principal, a Nat Cool wine that follow all the Nat Cool rules.
