Portugal is home to more than 300 native grapes. Fortunately, it has finally started putting more of them to good use. Long synonymous with sweet, fortified port wines, the country has transcended those associations and reframed its potential around a number of little-known indigenous varieties that have entered the modern spotlight.
Among the most exciting discoveries of this revolution comes not from the storied banks of the Douro, or even verdant Vinho Verde, but the relatively remote coastal region of Bairrada, located at the north end of the country between the chilly Atlantic and the mountains of the Dão. Historically known as Portugal’s leading producer of metodo classico sparkling wines, until recently the area would have seemed like an improbable birthplace for what some consider the country’s next star grape. But to a small but growing handful of industry insiders, that’s exactly what Baga—Bairrada’s flagship red—has become.
In little more than a decade, the thin-skinned, late-ripening variety, which often draws comparisons to fellow finicky grapes like Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo, has slowly but surely acquired a cult following. Though famously difficult to grow, when handled with just the right attention and care, the grape delivers complex, age-worthy reds of uncommon elegance, transparency, and cool-climate freshness.
“It’s structured, it’s mouthwatering, it’s pure—and no matter the style, there’s always this salty, mineral finish,” explains Eduardo Porto Carreiro, the vice president of beverage for the Atlanta metro area’s Rocket Farm Restaurants. An early Baga champion, he currently positions it on the same trajectory that launched the careers of previous “it” grapes such as Spain’s Mencía or Italy’s Pelaverga and Nerello Mascalese.
“Everything is in play for Baga to have an even bigger tipping point in the next few years,” says Porto Carreiro. In fact, given the noticeable uptick of expressions now available in the U.S. market, that process appears to be well underway, offering stateside audiences an even greater opportunity to get acquainted with the grape.
The arrival of new styles and expressions of Baga
In 2018, New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov lamented that “not that many Bairrada wines are available in New York.” That’s partly because, at the time, Baga’s reputation rested almost entirely upon the shoulders of a single family.
Anyone familiar with Bairrada wine will already know the famously long-lived reds of Luis Pato, the family patriarch who rescued the grape from obscurity in the 1980s.
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