Susana Esteban Procura Tinto 2019

Susana Esteban Procura Tinto 2019 is an outstanding red wine from the Alentejo, made by renowned winemaker Susana Esteban from vineyards in the Serra de São Mamede, Portalegre. Known for its great complexity and freshness, this blend comes from two exceptional vineyards at around 700 metres. As no 2018 was made, the 2019 followed directly after the 2017, with a very limited, exclusive production of just 5,200 bottles.

The Wine Advocate
RP 93

Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

No wine was made in 2018, so after the 2017 we go straight to the 2019 Procura Tinto, a blend of 50% Alicante Bouschet and 50% of the classic old-vine field blend from the São Mamede mountains (Trincadeira Preta, Aragonez, Grand Noir, Alicante Bouschet and others), fermented and aged separately.

The wine is well ripened, with 14.5% alcohol, higher because of the ripeness of the Alicante Bouschet, which Susana Esteban picks quite ripe to avoid the grape's herbaceous character, which she dislikes. It's a powerful, concentrated wine, with a medium to full-bodied palate and a good amount of tannin. It needs time and/or bold-flavoured food. 5,200 bottles were produced. It was bottled in December 2021.

Susana Esteban is a Galician winemaker who built her career in Portugal — at Quinta do Côtto and Quinta do Crasto in the Douro, and later in the Alentejo, where she consults for several producers and has run her own project since 2011. She produces 35,000 to 40,000 bottles a year. Every year she collaborates with another winemaker or wine personality on a wine called Sidecar, the two most recent being with Champagne grower Emmanuel Lassaigne and Galician distributor José Luis Aragunde of Ribeira de Fefiñans.

She works in the Portalegre area, a cooler, higher part of the Alentejo where ripening is slower and harvest later than in the south of the region. She works with rented vineyards and buys grapes, but has acquired a property in Alegrete where she has planted five hectares, 60% red and 40% white varieties, which will complement her current portfolio in future.

I tasted the current releases, mostly 2021 and 2022, as well as some older vintages back to 2017, to see how some of the wines evolve. Both 2021 and 2022 had very hot summers that caused the grapes to stop ripening. The vintage effect is more moderate in the mountainous Serra de São Mamede, where nights are cooler than in Estremoz or the south of the Alentejo. 2021 had more winter rain, while 2022 was drier. The style of the wines is quite similar, and Esteban believes this is because she works with old vineyards planted with mixed grapes that complement each other at higher altitude.

The whites are destemmed and pressed in a vertical press. The must settles overnight and ferments mostly in stainless steel, but also in talha and wood, always with indigenous yeasts and without malolactic fermentation. The wines then age on fine lees for a relatively long time. They develop slowly in bottle.

The reds mostly ferment destemmed — Esteban doesn't like herbaceous notes in red wines — in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts. Malolactic fermentation usually takes place in stainless steel, and ageing is mostly in used, neutral wood for one or two winters, depending on the wine.

She uses different kinds of vessels to age her wines, many previously used for one of the Sidecar wines: foudres, larger and smaller barrels, mostly well used and neutral, amphorae (talha in Portuguese) and stainless steel.

Most of the wines come from a single specific vineyard, as Susana Esteban aims to preserve the identity and expression of each place.

Published: 4 April 2024