Quinta do Zimbro is one of the Douro's historic quintas. It has been a place of many lives, of lives felt and lived intensely by those who have been enchanted by the nature of the place and by the multiple expressions transferred to the wines that are born from its grapes.
Ana Hespanhol is the face and soul of the present. Her father, Manuel Pinto Hespanhol, bought the quinta in 2003, anticipating, with a visionary spirit, the growth of DOC Douro wines. He was part of a generation of winegrowers who gave a strong push and kick-start to this new reality in the region.
Ana, the youngest of Pinto Hespanhol's daughters, was born in Régua, moved to Porto and travelled the world, initially studying economics, returning to the Douro.
After the death of her father, she has been spending her time between Alijó and Tua dedicated to learning about wine and the vine. Since 2014 she has started producing wines only from her own grapes. She scaled down the operation to focus solely on producing wines from the 13 hectares of Quinta do Zimbro in Tua. It has been a path made of learning, of questioning, of doing more, of imprinting greater authenticity and depth to its wines. The path has been made by the arduous commitment of the rationality of the production and the conviction in the organic way, of proximity and bond with the nature, everything to keep the integrity of a farm with unique characteristics.
Zimbro wines are soulful wines, with a Douro soul made of vigour and character and a strong mineral charge. They are wines that reveal a mixture of gastronomic aptitude and predisposition for ageing that is transversal to all the specimens.
As well as producing Zimbro wines, Ana is also involved in the Grau Baumé project, started in 2008 with her partner Hugo Mateus and her sister.
Grau Baumé is a little different. Its motto is the artisanal production of wines in the Douro on a small scale. It results from grapes bought from various producers in the various areas of the Douro. With extreme dedication from the vineyard to the bottle, they risk new ideas and reinvent themselves, rehearsing the influence of the various soils, exposures, altitudes and grape varieties, transferring to their wines the multiple personalities that the Douro uniquely possesses. They are wines of limited editions where they limit additions, put aside the "make-up" and "bypass" the filters. From the more "classic" beginnings in terms of range (white, red and rosé), others have been added, the tanning white wines, Uno Orange, another in the path of natural philosophy Grau Baumé Undo white and an ambitious and incredible Grau Baumé White Long Stage 2017 with 21 months in French and Hungarian oak.
And as they rightly declare "these wines accompany family and friends!"
