Da Cruz e Teles

"Da Cruz e Teles"

Da Cruz e Teles is a partnership between two of the brightest winemakers in Portugal, Tiago Teles and António Marques da Cruz. The idea of working together began in 2015 when they approached the family of the late José Mendonça about working on their vineyard in Figueira da Foz. This place was the main source of grapes for the "Quinta dos Cozinheiros", so the name of the wines "COZs-" is a diminutive of "cozinheiros" (cooks) in memory of José Mendonça and his vineyard..

Building on the success of their first vineyard, Tiago and António purchased a 3-hectare vineyard "Vinha da Pena" in 2017 in the Serra de Montejunto, a mountain range also located in the Lisbon region. A year later, they bought another 0.5 hectares in the same mountain under the name "Vinha do Outeiro" where the average age of the vines is 35 years. This 35-year-old vineyard is planted on clay-limestone soils with Vital, a white grape variety. Currently, they only produce the Vital grape in these vineyards, which exists only in this region of Portugal. Furthermore, the agriculture is organic. For the reds, which they only produce with Castelão, they buy certified organic grapes from a farmer who can also oversee the work in the fields. They vinify these wines in the cellar of this farmer from whom they purchase the red grapes. All the wines will undergo malolactic fermentation until the end, none of them will be filtered, fined, or adjusted, and they only use natural yeasts. The vineyards planted under the Atlantic climate are located 50 km north of Lisbon, just 18 km from the Atlantic Ocean, and they are situated at altitudes of 250 and 300 metres..