Joana Castro is responsible for the oenology and management at Quinta de Lourosa, a farm in the Vinho Verde region. “This farm belonged to my father’s forbearers and I would always help out in the grape-picking and winemaking, an area which I’ve always liked”, so my enthusiasm for winemaking was something that came naturally.

The passion which Joana has for this region can be seen in her words: “This region has a great potential and I think it’s on its way to being the best in the country, because it has the ability to create different products other than the typical summer white wine, which is undoubtedly excellent, but there is the potential for more interesting products such as the red, or sparkling, wines”.

Quinta de Lourosa seek to create more curious and different wines, Joana admitting that she is trying to create a sparkling white, solely using the Touriga Nacional caste. “I don’t know when it will be launched or what it will be like, but it will be in a small quantity. They are really only experiments, because it’s always interesting to do different things. As a matter of fact, a company with our dimension can’t be like the others, we have to show innovation”.

“On the other hand, we can’t just introduce innovations, as if these are not well accepted we are left without a market to sell them in. We have to find the point of balance and maintain the typical white Vinho Verde which the end consumer enjoys and sustains this type of company”.

Joana regrets that the Vinho Verde is regarded “as a summer whine, even though it is very well seen internationally” and that in the Vinho Verde region, the companies are still very unprofessional “if we compare ourselves with the Alentejo, where there are big and professional companies, here there are still very few people living off wine, making a profession out of this”.

Joana considers that in Portugal, there is a great “need for money to promote the wines, which in terms of quality are very good, but we don’t know how to promote them very well”.