Susana Esteban, as the name gives away, is not Portuguese, she is a Galician from Tui. However her career as an oenologist is developing in Portugal, initially in the Douro region and currently in Arraiolos, Alentejo, in the vines of the producer João Grancho.

In the Douro, Susana spent three years in the Quinta do Côtto and in 2002 she moved to the Quinta do Castro where she was responsible for some of the most prized, both nationally and internationally, DOC wines. The Quinta do Castro team’s work was acknowledged by one of the most famous worldwide wine magazines, the “Wine Spectator”. Quinta do Castro’s Touriga Nacional 2001 was the first Portuguese red wine to be classed with 96 points by the magazine’s demanding tasting panel. “We all like to see our work being acknowledged and I was lucky enough for that to happen in the beginning of my career which gave me great security”.

However Susana doesn’t always agree with all of the media attention which focuses on some wines because “sometimes the media give a greater importance to a certain type of wine when we should really give a greater importance to others. It isn’t always the most popular wine that we are the most proud of having made”.

Despite having moved from the Douro to the Alentejo, Susana confesses that she really enjoyed working there. It was actually her great curiosity of Port Wine that brought her to Portugal (Sandeman to be precise) after she finished her Masters in viticulture and oenology in Spain. When comparing her experiences in the Douro region and the Alentejo, she states that “the region is different, the castes are different, and the philosophy is different, but I think the differences are not only in the region, but also in the type of producer with whom you work”.

With regard to the general panorama of Portuguese wines, Susana claims that “the wines are getting much better and new producers have emerged. Of course it is a hard time for all of us, not just the Portuguese but for producers in other countries too. That is also the great test of knowledge, resistance, and seeing which producers have a future or not”.