Folias de Baco Uivo Curtido 2025

The Land

Orange wine usually brings to mind Georgian qvevri or the hills of Friuli. Portugal has its own tradition, curtimenta, and the Douro plateau turns out to be ideal ground for it. Tiago Sampaio's Moscatel Galego grows in the Cima Corgo around Alijó, between 500 and 700 meters, in soils of granite and schist. Altitude matters twice over for a skin-contact white. Cool nights hold acidity in a grape that goes soft in heat, and they slow ripening so the skins reach full aromatic development before sugar runs away. Those skins are where this wine gets its flavor, color and grip, and the high plateau is what lets them ripen fully without the finished wine turning heavy.

The Wine

The Uivo Curtido 2025 is 100% Moscatel Galego, hand-harvested and fermented as whole clusters on the skins, then left to macerate for four months before resting another four months in cement. That long maceration pulls tannin and amber color out of a grape known mostly for perfume, turning it into a dry orange wine from the Douro. The 2025 season was a hard one: a three-month drought left the Douro 35% short on rain, and early August brought ten straight days above 40°C, cutting yields across the region by around 30%. Cooler nights from mid-August let the fruit finish ripening. Expect citrus peel, table grape, dried herbs and a lift of mint, then firm tannin and a savory, mineral finish. Drink it young, while the aromatics are at full volume.

The People

Folias de Baco has never been comfortable inside the lines. In 2021 Tiago Sampaio broke with the IVDP, the body that governs Douro and Port, and most of his wines now carry simple table-wine labels instead of the Douro DOC. That freedom is what makes a four-month skin-macerated Moscatel possible. His US importer, Grossberg/Kopman Selections, credits him with bringing curtimenta, the old practice of fermenting white grapes on their skins, back into the Portuguese mainstream, along with palhete, the red-and-white co-ferment. Tiago founded the estate in 2007 on family vineyards near Alijó, after agricultural engineering studies in Vila Real and doctoral research at Oregon State. He farms organically, sprays kaolin clay against sun and pests, and keeps sulfur in his whites to a minimum.

Food Pairing

Skin-contact white has tannin, so treat it more like a light red at the table. Lamb kofta with garlicky yogurt, cumin and a chopped cucumber and tomato salad lets the grip meet the fat and the mint in the wine meet the herbs. Roasted cauliflower with harissa, tahini and preserved lemon stands up to the citrus peel and bitter edge. Pork belly bao with hoisin and pickled cucumber works because the tannin cuts sweetness and the aromatics lift the spice. Finish with a wedge of aged Manchego. This is the bottle for a Middle Eastern takeout night when the usual white feels like too little.