Portugal · Other producers

Vinhos Aparte

Small natural producer from Setúbal, Portugal, making additive-free, wild-fermented wines from grapes sourced across multiple Portuguese regions. Each limited-edition release carries original harvest artwork.

The producer

Vinhos Aparte was founded in 2018 by three friends: Luis, Diego, and Guillermo, working in the Setúbal region south of Lisbon. Diego and Guillermo both came from families with vineyards in the area, families who had historically sold their grapes in bulk. Aparte is the reversal of that pattern: source from farmers already working naturally, ferment wild, bottle without additives or filtration, and give each wine time to find its own expression. Every release is limited-edition, carrying original artwork commissioned from friends and keyed to that harvest.

The producer does not farm a single appellation. Setúbal supplies the Moscatel de Alexandria in Ambar; Lisboa provides Tinta Roriz and Castelão for Superavit Tinto; Trás-os-Montes contributes Tinto Cão and Bastardo to the same blend; Torres Vedras on the Atlantic coast is the source of Arinto for Ambar. The sourcing logic is deliberate: each region brings a different climate signature, and the wines are built from that contrast rather than resolved away from it.

Known for

Multi-regional Portuguese grape blends and skin-contact whites, made without additives or filtration using wild fermentation.

Notable facts

The story

The Forgotten Barrel

Sometime before 2018, when the three friends were still deciding whether they were making wine or just talking about it, they opened a barrel of Moscatel that had been sitting in a borrowed space for six months. No one had touched it. It had not been planned for ageing; it had simply been forgotten. When they finally opened it, the wine was, in their words, liquid gold. Something had happened to it in the silence: the fruit had deepened, the rough edges had rounded off, and the wine tasted like it had been made by someone who knew what they were doing. They had not known what they were doing. The barrel had done the work on its own.

From the atlas

Vinhos Aparte

At A Glance

The Producer

Vinhos Aparte was founded in 2018 by three friends: Luis, Diego, and Guillermo, working in the Setúbal region south of Lisbon. Diego and Guillermo both came from families with vineyards in the area, families who had historically sold their grapes in bulk rather than bottling their own wine. Aparte is the reversal of that pattern: buy from farmers, keep everything in-house, and give each wine time to become itself.

The operation is small by design. Grapes are hand-picked, fermented wild with indigenous yeasts, and bottled without additives or filtration. Every release is limited-edition, carrying original artwork commissioned from friends and keyed to that harvest.

The producer also trades under the identifier APRT3 on some retailer pages; both names refer to the same wines and the same cellar.

Place

Aparte does not farm a single appellation. It sources grapes from multiple Portuguese growing regions and blends them deliberately across that geography. Setúbal, on the Arrábida Peninsula south of Lisbon, supplies the Moscatel de Alexandria that goes into Ambar. Lisboa, the broad wine region surrounding the capital, provides Tinta Roriz and Castelão for Superavit Tinto. Trás-os-Montes, in the far northeast of Portugal near the Spanish border, contributes Tinto Cão and Bastardo to the same blend. Torres Vedras, a sub-zone of Lisboa on the Atlantic coast, is the source of Arinto for Ambar.

Each of these regions brings a different climate signature. Setúbal benefits from Atlantic influence and is one of Portugal's historic Moscatel heartlands. Trás-os-Montes is continental and high-altitude, which gives Bastardo and Tinto Cão a firmer acid line and more austere tannin than Lisboa-grown varieties tend to show alone. The blending logic in Superavit Tinto is partly about that contrast: warmer-grown fruit from Lisboa meeting cooler-grown grapes from the northeast.

Soil And Site

Aparte sources from farmers practising natural and sustainable agriculture, but works as a négociant rather than farming its own parcels. Soil and site data for individual source vineyards is not documented in available material. What is confirmed is that grape selection follows regional and varietal logic rather than a single-estate or single-appellation focus.

Story

Before the winery had a name, the three friends opened a barrel. It was a Moscatel that had been left undisturbed for six months, forgotten rather than planned. The wine inside was, by their account, transformed. That accidental discovery became the founding idea: not intervention, not correction, but patience. Leave the wine alone and it will find its own expression.

Aparte launched formally in 2018. The sourcing model they chose was deliberate. Rather than buying or leasing vineyards, they built relationships with farmers already working naturally across Lisbon's growing regions and beyond. Grapes travel into the cellar; wild fermentation takes over; the wines age without additives and leave unfiltered. The limited-edition approach followed from the same logic: no standardisation across vintages, no scaling toward a house style. Each label carries artwork by friends, changing with each harvest.

Ambar, the skin-contact white, predates the formal founding. It began as a thesis project in 2017 and went on commercial release in 2019, becoming the wine the range is most associated with. Its origins in a student experiment sit naturally alongside the founding barrel story: both are about what happens when you step back and let time do the work.

Vineyards And Cellar

All grapes arrive hand-picked. Fermentation is wild throughout the range, using only the indigenous yeasts present on the fruit and in the cellar. No additives enter at any stage; wines leave the cellar unfiltered.

For Superavit Tinto, the four-grape blend ferments with indigenous yeasts and then ages for eleven months in a combination of stainless steel vats and very old barrels. The old barrels contribute minimal oak character at that age; their main role is gentle, slow oxidation. The stainless component preserves fruit freshness. Leaving the wine unfiltered means the natural cloudiness and wild-ferment character carry through to the bottle.

Ambar is handled in open lagars with seven days of skin contact. The grape skins give the Moscatel de Alexandria a tannin grip it would not have as a straight pressed white, and they transfer colour, extracting the amber hue the wine is named for. After pressing, the wine moves to five-to-ten-year-old French oak barrels for six months. At that age the oak is a texture vessel, not a flavour source; the barrels soften the wine without adding vanilla or toast.

Mike Tazem Tinto uses foot-treading for two to four hours, a traditional method that extracts tannin and colour without the mechanical harshness of pump-over. Fermentation follows with indigenous yeasts over roughly a week.

Wines

Superavit Tinto is the most geographically ambitious wine in the range. The blend pulls Tinta Roriz and Castelão from Lisboa and combines them with Tinto Cão and Bastardo sourced from Trás-os-Montes, crossing nearly the full length of Portugal in one bottle. The Lisboa portion contributes the approachable, fruit-forward weight: ripe red berries, a slightly earthy mid-palate. The northeastern grapes add a firmer, more austere note. Eleven months of ageing between stainless steel and very old barrels keeps the wine medium-bodied and dry, with fruity vibrancy sitting alongside the deeper, spiced layer.

Ambar is a skin-contact white made from Moscatel de Alexandria from Setúbal and Arinto from Torres Vedras. The skin contact lasts seven days in open lagars, long enough to give the wine a light tannic grip unusual in whites from either grape. Six months in older French oak barrels adds roundness without pushing the wine toward wood flavour. The Arinto brings firm Atlantic acidity; the Moscatel contributes its distinctive perfume and tropical fruit weight.

Mike Tazem Tinto is 100% Tinta Pinheira, the grape also known as Rufete, sourced from the Tazem region. Foot-treaded and fermented short, it is the most traditionally made wine in the range and the most place-specific, named directly for its source.

In The Glass

Superavit Tinto opens with ripe red berries, a whisper of earthiness, and a quiet spice note from the northeastern grapes. In the mouth it is medium-bodied and dry, with enough fruity brightness to feel immediate and enough layered depth from the Tinto Cão and Bastardo to reward attention. The finish is clean and unadorned; the lack of filtration leaves a slight textural presence without heaviness.

Ambar arrives with ripe peach, apricot, and passion fruit on the nose, lifted by orange blossom and a faint note of orange leaf tea. Those aromas come from the Moscatel de Alexandria, a variety whose perfume is strong enough to carry through seven days of skin contact without being flattened. On the palate the wine is medium-bodied with cool, tingling acidity from the Arinto, and soft tannins that leave a slight pleasant astringency on the finish. The skin contact gives it more weight and grip than a standard white from either grape.

Mike Tazem Tinto, built around foot-treaded Rufete, shows the tannin and fruit character of a grape worked with traditional extraction, fermented fast with indigenous yeasts.

A Bottle To Understand It

Ambar is the right first bottle. It began as a student thesis project in 2017 before Aparte formally existed, and it captures the producer's approach more completely than any other wine in the range: two Portuguese grapes from different growing regions, seven days of skin contact in open lagars, six months in old French oak, no additives, and no filtration. In the glass it shows ripe peach, apricot, passion fruit, and orange blossom, with cool acidity from the Arinto keeping the Moscatel's tropical weight honest. The tannins are soft but present, a reminder that skin contact adds tannin, not just colour.

Anecdote

Sometime before 2018, when the three friends were still deciding whether they were making wine or just talking about it, they opened a barrel of Moscatel that had been sitting in a borrowed space for six months. No one had touched it. It had not been planned for ageing; it had simply been forgotten. When they finally opened it, the wine was, in their words, liquid gold. Something had happened to it in the silence: the fruit had deepened, the rough edges had rounded off, and the wine tasted like it had been made by someone who knew what they were doing. They had not known what they were doing. The barrel had done the work on its own.

Final Word

Vinhos Aparte is a small natural producer operating outside the single-appellation logic in Portuguese wine. The sourcing spans Setúbal, Lisboa, Torres Vedras, and Trás-os-Montes; the cellar philosophy is patience and non-intervention. The wines are limited runs, each unique to its harvest, made from grapes sourced across multiple Portuguese regions. Ambar is the wine that most fully captures that ambition.

Sources

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