Portugal · Vinho Verde

Márcio Lopes

A parcel-led Portuguese project linking granite-rooted Vinho Verde whites with dry, textured bottles from the Douro Superior.

The producer

Márcio Lopes founded his winemaking project in 2010, beginning with Pequenos Rebentos in Vinho Verde and Proibido in the Douro Superior. He works with around 200 plots and roughly 50 vinifications in a year, keeping differences between grapes and sites in view. Around Melgaço, granite parcels, Alvarinho experience and older local varieties shape the northern work; the Douro wines take a separate path.

Permitido Branco Reserva 2025 shows the Douro side clearly. Viosinho, Gouveio, Rabigato and Arinto ferment in stainless steel, then spend six months on lees. Pear, green apple, white peach, lime and herbs lead into a dry, medium-bodied palate, where lively acidity meets a lightly creamy texture and a stony, faintly bitter finish.

Known for

Parcel-led Portuguese whites: granite and older varieties in Vinho Verde, with textured Douro Superior blends.

Notable facts

The story

The 1932 vineyard

When Wine Anorak visited Quinta do Paçô, Márcio Lopes had already spent five years recovering the vineyard and was in the process of buying it. The work involved an established parcel rather than a newly planted site: Quinta do Paçô was planted in 1932 with mixed varieties growing together. Lopes was bringing the old vines back into production while the purchase remained unfinished, working with a field whose planting did not separate grapes into neat single-variety blocks. At the time of the visit, the recovery had taken five years, the ownership process was still under way, and the vineyard remained a mixed-variety planting from 1932.

From the atlas

Márcio Lopes

At A Glance

Márcio Lopes runs a parcel-led Portuguese project with two addresses: Pequenos Rebentos in Vinho Verde and Proibido and Permitido in the Douro Superior. Rather than flattening fruit into one house style, he works with around 50 vinifications from 200 plots in a year, so grape and site differences can remain visible in the finished wines.

The Producer

Born in Porto in 1983, Lopes studied Agricultural Engineering at the University of Porto and completed his first Alvarinho harvest in Melgaço while working with Anselmo Mendes. He founded his own project in 2010, pairing Vinho Verde’s Pequenos Rebentos with Douro Superior’s Proibido; Permitido joined the Douro work in 2013. The split matters in the glass: granite-led northern whites and Upper Douro whites are not being presented as the same place or the same wine.

Place

Pequenos Rebentos begins in northern Portugal, particularly around Melgaço and Monção, where Alvarinho and older local varieties are central to Lopes’s work. Lopes distinguishes Melgaço’s metamorphic granite, which he associates with greater concentration, from Monção’s heavier soils and fruitier wines. That contrast helps explain why parcel separation matters: a white from one part of the valley can bring firmer mineral shape, while another can lean more openly toward fruit.

Soil And Site

Lopes farms five hectares on granite and buys grapes from selected growers who avoid herbicides. Across the wider project, the reported 200 plots are not a single continuous vineyard but a collection of small sites, each capable of ripening grapes differently. At Quinta do Paçô, an old mixed planting adds another layer: its vines were planted in 1932, so the parcel carries several varieties rather than a neat single-grape block.

Story

Before establishing his own labels, Lopes worked in Melgaço and then travelled to Australia in 2008 for harvests in Rutherglen and Tasmania. In 2010 he brought those experiences into a project built around separate regions rather than a single estate: Pequenos Rebentos for Vinho Verde, Proibido for the Douro Superior. In 2017, he created Vinha da Sofia at Quinta do Pombal as an experimental vineyard for recovering native varieties, and in 2019 opened the project’s first winery for Pequenos Rebentos. The result is a range that can move from Alvarinho and older northern grapes to dry Douro whites without erasing the difference between them.

Vineyards And Cellar

At Quinta do Pombal, vineyard work includes manual and animal work, with no irrigation. Lopes also reports that 90% of his grapes come from growers who do not use vineyard herbicides. In the cellar, the approach is low intervention, with natural-yeast fermentation. For Permitido Branco Reserva 2025, grapes were destemmed, fermented in small stainless-steel tanks and kept on lees for six months; the steel keeps oak out of the flavour picture, while lees ageing builds a lightly creamy texture beneath the fresh acidity.

Wines

The range has three useful threads. Pequenos Rebentos is the Vinho Verde side, shaped by Melgaço, granite parcels, Alvarinho experience and Lopes’s interest in older varieties. Proibido is the Douro Superior project launched alongside it in 2010. Permitido, introduced in 2013, focuses on Upper Douro white wine; its earlier form was described as Rabigato-led, while the current Permitido Branco Reserva 2025 combines Viosinho, Gouveio, Rabigato and Arinto.

That 2025 Reserva comes from four hectares of vines aged 10 to 40 years. The four grapes bring different material to a dry, medium-bodied white: citrus and acidity from Arinto, herbal and yellow-fruit notes alongside pear, green apple and white peach, then lees-derived weight to keep the wine from feeling thin. It is a Douro bottle, not a Vinho Verde bottling, but it shares the wider project’s interest in letting vineyard material remain legible.

In The Glass

Permitido Branco Reserva 2025 opens with pear, green apple, white peach, lime and herbs. The palate is dry and medium-bodied, with lively acidity that stays rounded rather than sharp because six months on lees add a lightly viscous, silky texture. Stainless-steel fermentation keeps the fruit and mineral notes direct, without vanilla or toast from oak. Yellow fruit carries through the middle, while a faint bitter, stony edge lengthens the clean finish.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Márcio Lopes Permitido Branco Reserva 2025. It is a dry Douro Superior white made from Viosinho, Gouveio, Rabigato and Arinto, fermented in stainless steel and aged on lees for six months. Pear, apple, peach, lime and herbs arrive first; then medium body, soft lees texture and mineral grip take over. It is the most concrete first view of Lopes’s cellar work because the bottle shows how stainless steel can preserve fresh fruit while lees ageing supplies weight and a long, slightly bitter finish.

Anecdote

When Wine Anorak visited Quinta do Paçô, Márcio Lopes had already spent five years recovering the vineyard and was in the process of buying it. The work was not simply a matter of clearing an old parcel and planting again. Quinta do Paçô had been planted in 1932, and its vines held mixed varieties rather than one grape selected for a uniform bottling. Lopes was therefore working through an established field of different vines while the purchase itself was still unfinished. The visit caught the site between recovery and ownership: five years of work had gone into bringing it back, but the deal had not yet been completed. Quinta do Paçô remains a 1932 mixed-variety vineyard.

Final Word

Márcio Lopes is worth following for the way his bottles keep place in view: granite and older varieties around Melgaço, separate parcels across the north, and a dry Douro white whose fruit, acidity and lees texture can be read straight through the glass.

Sources

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