Chinado Palheto

Chinado Chinado Palheto is a light red wine from Alcobaça in Portugal’s Lisboa region, crafted by João Tereso of the Chinado estate, who began revitalizing his grandfather’s field-blend vineyards in 2017 and has farmed them organically since 2021.

The vineyard contains over 30 native grape varieties, with white grapes such as Fernão Pires, Malvasia-Rei, Vital, and Bical interplanted alongside red varieties like Castelão and Touriga Nacional. The grapes are harvested together, destemmed, foot-trodden, and left on skins for five days before pressing into large used French oak barrels for fermentation and aging.

This bottling follows the Palhete tradition, a historic Portuguese style in which red and white grapes are co-fermented, producing wines that are paler in color than typical reds but fuller and more structured than rosés.

The wine shows a light ruby hue with aromas of tart cherry, raspberry, redcurrant, and citrus zest. On the palate, it is fresh and vibrant, with juicy fruit, lively acidity, gentle tannins, and a subtle mineral finish that reflects the limestone-clay soils and Atlantic influence of its origin.