# Murgas Curtimenta (NV)

- **Producer:** Quinta das Murgas
- **Colour:** orange
- **Type:** still
- **Grapes:** Arinto
- **Region:** Lisboa, Portugal
- **Style:** Natural
- **Alcohol:** 12.5%
- **Average price:** €16
- **Vegan:** Yes
- **Contains sulphites:** Yes
- **When to drink:** Now or Later
- **Serving temperature:** 10–12 °C
- **Aromas & flavours:** peach, apricot, quince, orange, fennel, brioche, resinous, dried apricot, honey, hazelnut

## About this wine

Quinta das Murgas is a historic estate located in Freixial within the Bucelas sub-region of Lisboa, Portugal. Inherited by João França from his grandfather, the estate was revitalized in collaboration with winemaker Bernardo Cabral to focus on low-intervention, terroir-driven wines. Situated along the Trancão valley on deep limestone soils with intense Atlantic exposure, the property functions both as a traditional vineyard and an eco-refuge supporting local wildlife and biodiversity.

## Interesting facts

- Bucelas is traditionally famous for crisp white wines, but this wine uses ancestral 5-month skin contact.
- Bottles are numbered individually in limited micro-batches of under 1,500 bottles per release.
- The estate operates as an eco-refuge home to wild birds, sheep, horses, and llamas.

## Food pairing

The combination of Arinto's intense natural acidity and fine skin-contact tannins allows this orange wine to cut through fatty meats and rich textures, while its complex phenolic structure harmonizes perfectly with aged cheeses and earthy mushroom flavors.

## Wine making process

Hand-harvested in small 15 kg crates, 100% Arinto grapes undergo spontaneous fermentation using wild yeasts. The wine remains on its skins (curtimenta) for five months through autumn and winter without added sulfites. Racked off the skins in late February, it ages for an additional five to six months on fine lees with light bâtonnage during the first two months before being bottled unfiltered.