From the atlas
Herdade do Monte da Ribeira
At A Glance
Producer: Herdade do Monte da Ribeira (Casa Agrícola HMR SA) Country: Portugal Region: Alentejo Location: Pedrogão parish, Vidigueira municipality, near Marmelar village Vineyards: 43 hectares under vine within a 1,100-hectare estate of cork-oak and scrubland Labels: Pousio (main range), Marmelar (limited editions), Quatro Caminhos, Vidigueira Signature varieties: Alicante Bouschet, Syrah Winery founded: 1986 (first harvest 1992)
The Producer
Victor Carmona e Costa bought what was essentially undeveloped Alentejo land in 1986, and his first decisions were not about wine. He built three reservoirs, ran irrigation across the estate, then planted vines three years later. The first harvest came in 1992, and the initial bottles sold under the Vidigueira brand before Pousio became the house label. Those early Pousio wines won four consecutive gold medals from the Alentejo oenophile circuit through the 1990s, then quietly lost their footing.
The turning point came in 2011, when the estate underwent a leadership transition involving Mariana Carmona e Costa and António Nora. Luís Duarte joined as consulting enologist and Nuno Elias as the resident enologist on site. The range was refocused around Pousio, with Marmelar reserved for limited production. The estate Carmona e Costa had spent six years preparing before the first vine went in the ground has been producing under this team ever since.
Place
The estate sits in the Pedrogão parish of the Vidigueira municipality, inland Alentejo, on the flat plains and low hills that run south of Évora toward the Spanish border. Vidigueira is one of the cooler sub-zones of Alentejo, sheltered by the Serra de Portel to the north, and its position gives the wines a slightly longer growing season than the hotter zones further west.
The surrounding 1,100 hectares of cork-oak woodland and scrub are not simply backdrop: they moderate temperatures around the vineyard blocks and define the character of the landscape the Marmelar village label gestures toward. The 43 hectares under vine are a small working core within that larger expanse.
Soil And Site
Vidigueira's soils are predominantly schist and granite-derived, which drains freely in the wet season and retains warmth through the summer. This suits late-ripening varieties. Alicante Bouschet, a teinturier grape whose flesh as well as its skin carries colour pigment, responds to these conditions by producing deeply coloured, fruit-dense wine with enough natural acidity to stay balanced at high alcohol levels. The Parcela 98 2019 reached 16% alcohol with a measured acidity of 5.2 g/l and a pH of 3.62, figures that reflect a fully ripe grape retaining acid grip.
Story
Carmona e Costa's infrastructure investment preceded the first vine by three years and the first commercial vintage by six. Three reservoirs, a full irrigation network, and a commitment to superintensive Arbequina olive cultivation alongside the vineyard plots came first. When the winery building followed, he designed it with the advice of consulting enologist João Portugal Ramos to operate entirely by gravity: grapes entered at the top of the building and wine descended through every stage of production without a pump touching it. This required building into the slope rather than on flat ground, and it was a costly structural choice for an estate that had not yet sold a single bottle.
The gold medals came in the 1990s, then the label faded. By 2011 the estate needed a new direction. The 2011 leadership transition involving Mariana Carmona e Costa and António Nora marked a deliberate reset: the same gravity winery, the same Alentejo land, but with Luís Duarte's consulting hand shaping the cellar work and a clearer focus on what the vineyards near Marmelar village could actually produce.
Vineyards And Cellar
The 43 hectares hold several varieties, with Alicante Bouschet and Syrah carrying the weight of the main range. The gravity-fed design means juice and wine move between tanks, barrels, and vessels by height rather than mechanical pressure, which avoids the oxidation and physical stress that pumping can introduce at each transfer point.
Pousio Syrah spends 12 months in French oak barrels before bottling. The oak contact adds cedar and spice character and softens the grape's natural tannin without pushing the wine into a heavy extracted style. Pousio Parcela 98 is vinified as a single-variety Alicante Bouschet from carefully selected fruit, and the technical discipline of the 2019 vintage, with its precise acidity measurement at high ripeness, reflects the kind of attention to harvest timing that the 2011 team brought to the cellar.
Wines
The range divides into four labels with distinct jobs. Pousio is the main tier and covers the widest ground: a fruit-forward rosé built on strawberry and raspberry character, a Syrah aged in French oak for 12 months with spice and wood integration, and Parcela 98, a single-variety Alicante Bouschet with the dense pigmentation, full body, and layered dark fruit that the teinturier grape produces in Alentejo heat. Pousio Reserva Tinto sits above the standard range, with cedar notes, pleasant dryness, and strong character.
Marmelar Tinto is the limited-edition tier, made in smaller volume with a deep ruby colour, forest fruit aromas, and a soft, full palate. Quatro Caminhos and the original Vidigueira brand round out the portfolio. The architecture moves from lighter, everyday drinking at the rosé end up through Syrah, Parcela 98, and the Reserva, with Marmelar sitting as the prestige limited release.
In The Glass
The Pousio Selection Rosé is light and direct: fresh strawberry and raspberry, no oak, a short clean finish suited to warm-weather drinking. Pousio Syrah carries the oak-forward mid-range character that 12 months in French barrel produces: dark plum and blackberry fruit, cedar and spice on the nose, a palate that is fuller than the rosé but not heavy, with a drying finish from the tannin and wood contact.
Pousio Parcela 98 is the most distinctive wine in the range. Alicante Bouschet in Alentejo produces wines that are almost opaque in the glass, with dark cherry and blackberry fruit, an inky density, and a warmth at the finish that reflects the grape's high-ripeness character. The 2019 acidity of 5.2 g/l gives it more lift than the alcohol alone would suggest.
Marmelar Tinto is softer: forest fruit aromas, a full palate without sharp tannin, and the deep ruby colour that marks well-grown Alentejo red. The Pousio Reserva Tinto adds cedar and a dry, firm quality over the fruit, with the character that comes from careful selection and extended ageing.
A Bottle To Understand It
Pousio Parcela 98 is the right first bottle. It is a single-variety Alicante Bouschet, which means every element of colour, fruit, and body in the glass comes from one grape grown on one parcel near Marmelar village, vinified without a pump touching it at any stage. The 2019 vintage reached 16% alcohol and held 5.2 g/l of acidity, which keeps the wine from feeling flat despite its weight. In the glass it is almost opaque, with dark cherry and blackberry fruit, a concentrated mid-palate, and a warm, long finish. It is full-bodied wine in the full Alentejo sense, but the acid line prevents it from sitting heavy. Start here to understand both the grape and what the estate does with it.
Anecdote
When Victor Carmona e Costa built the production facility at Herdade do Monte da Ribeira, he designed it to run on gravity alone. Working with consulting enologist João Portugal Ramos, he arranged the building so that grapes entered at the top and wine descended through every stage without a pump touching it at any point. The decision required building the winery into the slope rather than on flat ground, which made the project considerably more expensive at a moment when the estate had not yet produced its first commercial vintage. Carmona e Costa had spent three years building reservoirs and irrigation before planting a single vine, and now he was shaping the winery around a physical principle before the wine existed to test it. The first harvest came in 1992. The gravity layout remained.
Final Word
Herdade do Monte da Ribeira is an Alentejo estate built infrastructure-first: water before vines, gravity-designed winery before the first vintage, a deliberate reset in 2011 before a new range took shape. The lead bottle is a teinturier grape with enough natural acidity to carry its weight. Vidigueira gives it the slightly cooler growing conditions that keep that acidity alive. The 2011 team has had fifteen years to find out what that combination produces.
Sources
- https://pousiohmr.pt/en/sobre-nos/
- https://www.revistadevinhos.pt/noticias/herdade-do-monte-da-ribeira
- https://www.vidarural.pt/sem-categoria/a-nova-vida-da-herdade-do-monte-da-ribeira/
- https://www.vinhosdoalentejo.pt/en/wine-tourism/casa-agricola-hmr/
- https://pousiohmr.pt/en/products/
- https://pousiohmr.pt/en/product/parcela-98-2019/