SARAVÁ Wine is a familiar independent production of low intervention wine based in Ponte de Lima – Northwest Portugal.
We are Miguel Viseu (winemaker) and Leli (journalist). Saravá began in 2018, when we made two different wines – Loureiro and Skin Contact – and everything was made in our house. We had stainless steel, some 125l tinajas and a few chestnut barrels.
In 2019 we were invited to make wine for another producer that has a very beautiful underground winery, a little bit more equipment and as a partnership, we moved our vessels over there. As we enjoyed the results from 2018, we repeated the process in 2019 with some small improvements and decided to blend both the wines of that vintage. In 2020 we had again two different wines, back to the Loureiro and Skin Contact we had in 2018 with very similar process and some bottles more of each wine. In 2022 we will have our 2021 wines, including 2 new “surprises”.
It is a blessing, a greeting, used to wish good luck, invoking the force of nature.
The word SARAVÁ has an Afro-Brazilian origin.
In our area – Sub Lima region inside Vinho Verde, we have natural high acidity and high PH. We know most people add yeasts, enzymes and sulfur to their wines; by doing the opposite we hope to truly express our terroir. We don’t want to disguise the wine. We only add a tiny bit of S02 at bottling to ensure that the wines can travel and age.
The grapes for Saravá comes every year from the same plot, on a friend´s vineyard that Miguel knows since their childhood and beach summers nearby. This is the region where we are raising our son, surrounded by nature and green, taking baths on Lima River many times along the year, and 25 minutes from the Atlantic. The location has a strong meaning for us, and also an important influence on the grapes we choose for Saravá, our first wine.
Miguel came from Douro to study agronomy here, and then he decided to work in other regions. Curiosity also moves us, so let´s see what comes next!
Miguel Viseu
Born in Douro, in a family of wine producers, I was taught that wine is a reflection of time and space. Throughout the years I noticed that the market expectation of how a wine should turn out was pushing us away from understanding tradition, nature and to use intuition as a guideline. I believe that seeding the market with less interventive wine and by showing local varieties in its pure essence will raise awareness for authenticity, impact on health and sustainability.
Saravá wines are not filtered, and we keep the sulphur addition to the bare minimum, nothing else is added. Only indigenous yeast are used, and the balance is achieved by working with the lees and wood.
Before Saravá, Miguel has been working around the world. Two yeards in Burgundy, two years in Napa Valley with Paul Hobbs, Brazil with Sven Bruchfield, Cahors, Tuscany with Sean O`Callaghan and finally, Aphros Wine with Vasco Croft where he still works.
LELI
Emanuelle Dalla Costa was born in Treze Tílias, Santa Catarina, South of Brazil. She studied Journalism and Social Sciences in Curitiba and on her moving life got to like more and more enjoying what nature has to give us.
Always a healthy food lover, she owned her healhy food and tea`s store (called Mahalo Mundo) when she met Miguel and started learning about wine. They went together to Cahors (France), Tuscany (Italy) and then Mozambique, where she worked as Project Manager for a NGO in Education Programs for children and teenagers.
Since the couple moved to Portugal, Leli dedicate her time between some NGO freelancer jobs, wine and cider (Nua Cider, other couple adventure with friends).