Espera 'Era Uma Vez' Branco
Espera 'Era Uma Vez' Branco
Grapes — Predominantly Arinto, with other indigenous white varieties
Region — Alcobaça, Lisboa, Portugal
Tasting Notes — Pale citrus-gold with a green glint. Green apple, lemon and lime zest, and white peach on the nose, lifted by white flowers and a distinct wet-limestone minerality. The palate is bright and linear, driven by Arinto's famously exuberant acidity, with a gentle texture underneath and a long, saline, mouthwatering finish. Fresh and immediate, but with more grip and presence than a house white has any obligation to offer.
The Wine — A white built around Arinto, one of Portugal's great acid grapes and the variety best suited to holding freshness in a warm climate. The fruit comes from Espera's clay-limestone vineyards in Alcobaça, roughly 120 meters above sea level and close enough to the Atlantic that cool ocean air moderates the summer heat and keeps the wine taut without any need for intervention.
Rodrigo Martins keeps no fixed élevage across his range, preferring to treat every vintage on its own terms and give each wine as much or as little time as it seems to want. The house wines are made with the same care as the single-variety bottlings, just with less ceremony attached.
The name means "Once Upon a Time," and this is the white poured at the family tavern, alongside its red counterpart, both wearing the same hand-drawn comic strip label depicting the people who work there.
Farming — Organically farmed across roughly ten hectares split between Alcobaça and nearby Óbidos, on clay-limestone soils. No herbicides, no synthetic pesticides, all vineyard work by hand. Rodrigo is direct about the priority: the environment comes first, and the wine follows from that.
Winemaking — Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts and no temperature control. No fining, no filtration, and low sulfur at bottling as the only addition. Nothing added, nothing corrected.
The Producer — Espera is a small family project founded in 2014 by Rodrigo Martins and Ana Leal in the Alcobaça region north of Lisbon. Rodrigo, an agronomic engineer and Master of Oenology born and raised in nearby Óbidos, took over a parcel of old vines and farmed it the only way he was interested in farming: organically, patiently, and with real deference to a terroir shaped by centuries of Cistercian monastic winemaking. The monks of Alcobaça worked this land for generations, and Rodrigo looks directly to their historical practices when deciding how to make his own wines.
The name means "wait," and it is the entire philosophy. Nothing is released on a schedule. Wines go out when Rodrigo and Ana decide they are ready, which is a genuinely unusual position for a producer at this price point to take.
Era Uma Vez is the pair of wines poured at the family tavern, made for the table rather than the tasting note. This is what the people who made it drink with dinner.
Drink It With — Grilled sardines, salt cod, shellfish, roast chicken with lemon, fresh sheep's cheese, or a long unhurried meal in good company.
Espera 'Era Uma Vez' Branco
Grapes — Predominantly Arinto, with other indigenous white varieties
Region — Alcobaça, Lisboa, Portugal
Tasting Notes — Pale citrus-gold with a green glint. Green apple, lemon and lime zest, and white peach on the nose, lifted by white flowers and a distinct wet-limestone minerality. The palate is bright and linear, driven by Arinto's famously exuberant acidity, with a gentle texture underneath and a long, saline, mouthwatering finish. Fresh and immediate, but with more grip and presence than a house white has any obligation to offer.
The Wine — A white built around Arinto, one of Portugal's great acid grapes and the variety best suited to holding freshness in a warm climate. The fruit comes from Espera's clay-limestone vineyards in Alcobaça, roughly 120 meters above sea level and close enough to the Atlantic that cool ocean air moderates the summer heat and keeps the wine taut without any need for intervention.
Rodrigo Martins keeps no fixed élevage across his range, preferring to treat every vintage on its own terms and give each wine as much or as little time as it seems to want. The house wines are made with the same care as the single-variety bottlings, just with less ceremony attached.
The name means "Once Upon a Time," and this is the white poured at the family tavern, alongside its red counterpart, both wearing the same hand-drawn comic strip label depicting the people who work there.
Farming — Organically farmed across roughly ten hectares split between Alcobaça and nearby Óbidos, on clay-limestone soils. No herbicides, no synthetic pesticides, all vineyard work by hand. Rodrigo is direct about the priority: the environment comes first, and the wine follows from that.
Winemaking — Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts and no temperature control. No fining, no filtration, and low sulfur at bottling as the only addition. Nothing added, nothing corrected.
The Producer — Espera is a small family project founded in 2014 by Rodrigo Martins and Ana Leal in the Alcobaça region north of Lisbon. Rodrigo, an agronomic engineer and Master of Oenology born and raised in nearby Óbidos, took over a parcel of old vines and farmed it the only way he was interested in farming: organically, patiently, and with real deference to a terroir shaped by centuries of Cistercian monastic winemaking. The monks of Alcobaça worked this land for generations, and Rodrigo looks directly to their historical practices when deciding how to make his own wines.
The name means "wait," and it is the entire philosophy. Nothing is released on a schedule. Wines go out when Rodrigo and Ana decide they are ready, which is a genuinely unusual position for a producer at this price point to take.
Era Uma Vez is the pair of wines poured at the family tavern, made for the table rather than the tasting note. This is what the people who made it drink with dinner.
Drink It With — Grilled sardines, salt cod, shellfish, roast chicken with lemon, fresh sheep's cheese, or a long unhurried meal in good company.