Fora da Série Sustainability: being “outside the box”

Being “Fora da Série” means irreverence, innovation and creativity, but that’s not all.

For us, “Fora da Série” isn’t just making innovative and bold wines, since it is also about (re)learning processes, testing new market trends, and trying out different responses to the challenges we face in our wines’ lives, such as a shifts in consumer behaviour, climate changes, or the ecological footprint we leave behind. And precisely for this reason, it has also a serious and consistent focus on sustainability at its core.

Since the beginning of the project, in 2019, we have chosen to dress our wines using lighter and more sustainable bottles, we have opted for transport boxes with greater capacity, thus reducing the ecological footprint of our products, and have developed a one-piece label, which has allowed us to reduce the mass of paper produced by 30%.

In order to cope with the climate changes that are increasingly evident in the Douro region, due to rising temperatures and a lack of rain in the vineyards, which impact the maturation of the grapes and the wines’ profile, the harvest has been brought forward from year to year, now starting in mid-August.

Motivated by these abrupt changes in the climate, we were challenged to reinterpret the region, now looking upon its new characteristics. So, we have been experimenting new ways of taking care of our grapes, playing with the diversity of the grape varieties we have, each of them with a different ripening response, but we have also questioned (and sometimes revolutionized!) certain steps in the vinification and ageing processes of our wines.

As a result of these new responses, new wine profiles were born. Through them, we are trying to keep up with the market trend, which mostly points to wines with less tannins and alcohol, more versatile, and also more sustainable.

Above all, we exist to serve well, and that’s why our path is also being drawn by those who give us the pleasure of being part of their dining table and their wine cellar.

We know that these are still small steps, but we are confident, proud and happy to be on the right track!