Carlos Raposo is a Portuguese winemaker and entrepreneur who launched the World Wild Wines project to craft terroir‑driven, imaginative wines from the Dão and other Portuguese regions, aiming to make precise, elegant wines that reflect place and variety. He discovered a connection to nature early, studied viticulture and enology as a teenager in Bairrada, then spent about seven years training and working in Bordeaux and Burgundy before returning to Portugal to build his professional career in winemaking. Raposo worked closely with Dirk Niepoort for many years and became a key figure at Niepoort’s projects, helping shape both Douro and Vinho Verde programs; he left Niepoort around 2018 to pursue his own labels while maintaining collaborative ties on some projects.
The grapes selected for this wine are from the Senhorim Sub-Region. The age of the vines ranges between 30 and 60 years and are from mostly monovarietal vineyards. Typical grape varieties from the Dão region are composing this wine, such as Encruzado, Bical and Malvasia fina. The choice of the harvest day is decisive for the type of wine we want to make. The harvest day was on the 10th of September, harvesting only grapes with great potential. After careful transport to the winery using 15 kg boxes, the grapes were sent by gravity directly to the press. We pressed slowly and gently in order to extract and preserve the primary aromas of the grapes. For approximately 24 hours, the must was decanted in stainless steel vats. Then followed the alcoholic fermentation, in a temperature-controlled environment, without any addition of chemicals. The must fermented with native yeasts. The wine then aged for 11 months in French oak barrels.
