Behind the vine

Maria Manuel Poças Maia - Poças - Douro, Portugal

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

I grew up with wine because I’m part of a family of wine producers. Wine has followed me all my life through my family, but when it came to the moment to choose what I would do/study, I had two options: agronomy or veterinary. I chose agronomy because I knew that I would work with my family and it was something that I liked to do. I wanted to have a job where I could be in open space and connect with nature, so I focused on the vineyards. I love to be in the vineyards because it's very relaxing to be amongst the silence of the vines.

I love to see all the phases of the year. I love to see the vineyards in Spring because it's beautiful moment where landscape is very green. In summer, sometimes it's heavy heat but I love to see all the steps of change. It's a challenge when it rains and you deal with diseases/pests, but that's part of the job. And I’ve worked in vineyards since 2005, so I have 15 years experience. It's very important to know the land, to know your vineyard, to go there because when we know the vineyards, we know where the weak points are.

What story does your wine tell?

We have 100 years of history. So it's a lot of history. Especially in Port. When people buy our wines, I think they should expect to taste very good quality wines that add to very good moments.

In Port, you have more specific styles of wine. You have Tawny/Ruby, but with still wines, we like to make new things and share them with consumers. We are making a series of wines which means 'out of the line'. We make small quantities of varieties that are not so common, or experiment with different ways of making the wine. We have an orange wine, one that’s ageing in quevri. We like to innovate in wines. And Douro has a huge potential to do it.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

When I have dinner with friends that don't belong to wine business they have me taste wines and say 'I don't know anything, I don't know how to comment on it'. What’s happened is all of the wine critics that we read about have a lot of complicated words and that's the part that people should forget. When you drink wine, you like it or you don't like it. The part of knowing the difficult words, it's for us that have to taste wine and find it if has some bad flavours/flaws. But that's our job. The drinker’s job is to enjoy wine.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

They should remember the moments they have when they taste wine - that moment with friends, family, alone reading a book. It's all the moments that you create.

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

First, I think you have to study in a highly commended place that gives you a good quality education. You should choose specialised schools that are known for wine making. Then, take a lot of internships to get practical experience.

Who is a woman that inspired you?

D. Antónia Adelaide Ferreira: She had a vision and she created big vineyards in Douro in the 19th Century at a time when Portugal has a very conservative society. She was ahead of her time, but she was accepted in society because she was very powerful. That's a figure that many of us speak about and we should keep talking about her.

Where can women find your wine?

We have importers in the UK (House of Townend) and the US (Tri-vin, Kindred Vines).

You can visit us in Porto, in Gaia: https://www.pocas.pt/