To Márcio Lopes, the beginning of 2020 could have hardly started any better! In one shot, he won two prestigious wine awards in Portugal: The 2019 Oenologist Revelation Award, by the Essência do Vinho Wine Magazine and the Singularity Award by Vinho Grandes Escolhas magazine. For anyone who realized the existence of the name Márcio Lopes for the first time due to these awards, certainly thought that he should be someone who created something new, revealing attention and that this would be made out of originality, of character, of strong digital impression, how to define the prize, something selected with singularity. However, his wines have had a long legion of admirers. At Evasões, Fernando Melo nicknamed Márcio the “genius wine creator!”, a big commendation as Fernando knows his country and its wines better than few.
Márcio's dream was to make Port Wine. In his mind, at the beginning of his career, his ideal was to go to the Douro and make the famous “fine wine”. For this Porto-born, without any foot in the world of wine, son of a seamstress and a salesman, without a piece of land and someone who acquired a taste for agriculture through his grandparents, the goal of going to the Douro came about, sometime later, but in a way quite different from what was imagined. Studying agronomic engineering would be the inevitable itinerary, in order to fulfill this dream. During his studies, in 2005, fate wanted the first harvest to go even further north, at the last limit to the north of the country, in Melgaço. It was there that he worked alongside one of the great masters of the region and the country, also with a higher mentality and thought than the region itself, the winemaker Anselmo Mendes. As a matter of fact, on a side note, some of the outstanding names, newer or older, of the current vitiviniculture, had been alongside Anselmo. During those times, Márcio did everything, everything that is less visible and less noticeable, but everything that is more important, more edifying and fundamental, which is to roll up his sleeves and put his hands (and feet) in the dough. Fold and pull hoses, move all the equipment from side to side, walk with a hoe, pick grapes, washes, etc., everything that is the real life of this activity. Today, as it could not be otherwise, he thanks, transports and passes on this message. As Márcio says many times, it didn't start from scratch, it started below zero, "minus one!"
With his studies completed in 2006, he moved on to Australia in 2008, where he stayed for two years. A country in the antipodes, but at that time and still today, a reference for innovation and knowledge in all areas of this activity. In 2010, Portugal started to take shape for Márcio, as his ideas, with a number that gave rise to the first wines, 1000 bottles of Alvarinho from the sub-region of Monção and Melgaço and 600 bottles from its region, the Douro, with the brand Proibido.
After a decade, the awards reflect the experimentalist spirit, restless, but with knowledge, not only the knowledge of school, knowledge also linked to the knowledge of the elderly, knowledge of the experience that passes through generations. "Nobody wants to work for low incomes, walk with ladders working on a vineyard or on the steps of a ladder to treat a hanged vineyard, using indigenous varieties from each region". Márcio invested in old vineyards, in unique vineyards, in grape varieties that have fallen into disuse, gives them a new lease of life, risks not doing more out of it, ideally that the wine expresses the land, the people, to discover distinct and unique wines. He interacts with people, with people who interact well with nature, reward those, paying better to those who promote sustainability. Even the designations in their wines evoke that message, “old fashioned”, “wild”, “centenary white”. In the cellar, one does not spare in the search for precision, purity, in the use of wild yeasts, in the tiny addition of sulfur dioxide, even if for that he has to make the barrel a sleeping pad, to meet any need promptly. All of this to make people happy.
Made by Márcio Lopes and named after him, masterpieces from the Vinho Verde, Douro and even the Galician accent wine from Ribeira Sacra come to fruition, where he explores a tiny half-hectare vineyard about 70 years old. The dream continues ten years later, while growing and evolving. Márcio acquired a property in the Douro margins, at Quinta do Pombal in Vila Nova de Foz Côa, another personal project, also as a family and legacy project. It came to the north, at 500 meters of altitude, with 5 hectares, 1 hectare of vines planted in 1957, placed at his disposal, at the mercy of his creativity. Also, in the Vinhos Verdes region, in 2020, he made investments to better control all the processes. He is aware that everything has its rhythm, as referred to in a brilliant expression "great days are 100 years old".
Almost senseless, and certainly without intention, Márcio seems to be right, a “Dirk” style, as Dirk Niepoort, for wines and inspiration. Not infrequently, at least. But it is in the message, in the attitude, in the way of living what he says, saying some things, that at first impression it seems unimportant, and when paying attention, there is a deep meaning, one feels or structuring, and even something visionary!
From Márcio, we know that more great creations will come around, wines full of soul, character and freshness with each sip.
