Susana Esteban Sidecar Branco 2022

Susana Esteban Sidecar Branco 2022 is a DOC Portalegre wine, the fruit of a collaboration between winemaker Susana Esteban and her fellow Galician José Luis Aragunde. This annual project challenges the producer's friends to interpret the vineyards of the Serra de São Mamede.

The Wine Advocate
RP 93

Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

In 2022, the Sidecar was made in collaboration with Galician wine merchant José Luis Aragunde, and comes from the same vineyard as the 2020 sparkling. The 2022 Sidecar Branco fermented in new 1,000-litre chestnut barrels bought in Catalonia. There were two fermentations: one with grapes picked earlier, with higher acidity and lower alcohol; and another picked a little later (two weeks), with riper grapes. The first finished fermenting in barrel and matured for eight months, while the second stayed full in the cask. In the end, they selected only the second, which was completely balanced, with 12% alcohol and the acidity and freshness from the altitude and granite soils. It has notes of white flowers and fennel, a round palate and no trace of wood. It's floral and elegant.

Susana Esteban is a winemaker from Galicia who built her career in Portugal — Quinta do Côtto and Quinta do Crasto in the Douro, and later the Alentejo, where she consults for many producers and has had her own project since 2011. She makes between 35,000 and 40,000 bottles a year. Every year she collaborates with another winemaker or wine personality — a wine called Sidecar — the last two being with Champagne producer Emmanuel Lassaigne and with Galician distributor José Luis Aragunde of Ribeira de Fefiñáns.

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

Published: 4 April 2024