Greenwashing is a problem that is never really going to go away, and most of us have learned to be a little wary of enthusiastic PR messaging about sustainability. Simply buying carbon credits in order to ‘nullify’ carbon footprints, or giving charitable donations to compensate for compacted soil and blighted biodiversity, don’t cut it. The sustainability credentials I take seriously are practices that link directly to the production of the wine in the bottle, be it in the vineyard, the cellar or the supply chain.
So I was somewhat cynical when I saw Altano’s Rewilding Edition Douro red described as a wine that ‘gives back’ because it was supporting some charity or other that had nothing to do with the actual wine. But I was also curious, because Altano belongs to Symington Family Estates, and the Symington family are hardcore committed to environmental justice – window dressing is not their way of doing things. So I asked to chat to someone involved with the rewilding project, to understand the actual story behind the wine.
On 27 April, over an online call, I met Pedro Prata, head of Rewilding Portugal (RWP). What I learned stunned me. This was no small undertaking. Prata explained that back in 2013 Portugal and Spain had together put forward a bid to take part in the groundbreaking Rewilding Europe initiative with a joint proposal that covered western Iberia on both sides of the border. Their proposal was accepted and when they put out a call for someone to lead the project, Prata applied and got what he thought was his dream job.
But there was a disagreement. Spain walked out. Prata was left with the tatters of two years of work and hopes dashed. He was not going to give up. He went back to the drawing board, and two years later, back to Rewilding Europe with a different proposal – this time just for Portugal. When the proposal was finally approved, there was no funding for it. Stubbornly, he hung in there, got on the phone, banged on doors. Finally, in 2018, they received just enough funding to get started.
The RWP project is bold, massively complex and extensive. It spreads across 318,000 ha (786,000 acres) of the Greater Côa Valley in north-eastern Portugal, basically following the watershed of the Côa River from the border region between Portugal and Spain where the Côa meets the Douro River south to the Malcata Mountains. (Interesting side fact is that the Côa River is one of the very few Portuguese rivers that flow from south to north.) They are initially focusing on 120,000 ha of this 140-km (90-mile) corridor.
It has been home for hundreds of years to the ancient, richly diverse landscape known as dehesa (in Spain) or montado (in Portugal), an anthropogenic landscape shaped over millennia by constant but gentle human interaction that creates a thriving ecosystem and self-sustaining balance between humans, animals, plants, insects and microbial life.
But modern life has led to a profound change in the way that people interact with the landscape. Rural–urban drift, mining, significantly fewer domestic livestock grazing, the introduction of chemicals and heavy machinery, all mean that a way of life and traditional practices have been abandoned and natural resources have been exploited, damaging ecosystems.
Rewilding an area like this is not just about planting native trees and wild flowers. It critically depends on achieving a very fine, delicate balance between intervention and letting nature lead, between human and ecosystem needs. The ecosystem must be ‘seeded’ carefully at every trophic level, from microbes to predators. Physical and biological links must be put in place to reinstate the trophic chains, reduce habitat fragmentation, rebuild species’ interactions and recreate the natural circularity of biomass and energy.
Herbivores, for example, are vital to a montado landscape – their hooves trample seeds into the ground, their manure feeds detritivores and enriches the soil, their grazing encourages biodiversity, and their patterns of grazing significantly reduce the spread and intensity of wildfires in the dry season. But reintroducing native species of roe and fallow deer, wild Auroc cattle and semi-wild Sorraia horses (all of which RWP has done) brings a singular complication: when the natural predators have been eradicated, how do you manage the numbers of these herbivores without annual culls?
The answer is wolves, who are naturally returning to the territory. But that, too, requires careful handling. If wolves attack domestic livestock, it not only causes resentment and distrust of the rewilding project, but also undermines the aim to restore the montada, which is a landscape that depends on nature-based economies. To reduce conflict and promote human–wolf co-existence, RWP has put in miles of fencing to protect livestock. Furthermore, they work with each farmer to select a herd guard dog, help the farmer to train the guard dog, and check in on a regular cadence to make sure that the guard dog, the farmer and the livestock are all happy. It is, Prata tells me, a lifetime project, and one in which communication is key.
So is patience. ‘I have given more than 12 years of my life to this. It’s been seven years already and I think we have only just started.’ It’s not cheap either. They employ a team of 20 people, who are constantly monitoring, auditing, observing and researching, as well as liaising with local residents and local businesses. They are also buying up land in chunks to create corridors and nature reserves throughout the valley to make sure that the connections function as they should and are left alone for long enough to regenerate properly. They have constructed 53 ponds, built a rewilding centre for education and wildlife tourism, held conferences, developed local-product boxes, recorded documentaries, marked scavenger birds with GPS devices, removed dozens of illegal hunting traps and built an observation hide.
Clusters of black oak and holm oak are coming back – 100 ha (247 acres) of native forest have been restored. Wetlands have reappeared. The golden eagle and griffon vulture have started to nest here again and even more exciting is the reappearance of the cinereous vulture – 18 mating pairs have been spotted. 555 invertebrate species and 106 fungi species have now been recorded. Not long ago, one of their biologists discovered a species of wildflower that no one even knew had existed in the valley. ‘We have seen the valley come back to life’, Prata said, beaming.
How does this relate to wine? In their search for funding, RWP came to the attention of the Symingtons, who immediately saw the synergy between the two organisations’ aims and values: reduce extraction, restore soil and biodiversity, and improve socio-ecological conditions for the next generations. The Symingtons made the decision to create a specific Rewilding blend under their Altano brand that would be approachable, fresh, easy-drinking, packaged in both lightweight 75-cl glass bottles and 2.25-litre bag-in-tube cardboard. Every sale of the Rewilding Edition would contribute financial support to RWP. Prata tells me that this wine alone has tripled their annual income. It is quite literally the lifeblood of the project.
It’s not just a feel-good, do-good wine. It tastes good, too. So good, in fact, that our very own Julia Harding MW chose Altano Rewilding Edition as the red wine for her wedding party! If that’s not a badge of honour, then I don’t know what is. Anthony Symington, she wrote in 2022, told her that this was his house wine.
I tasted both the 2021 (available in the US) and the 2022 (available in the UK). Both wines are a blend of roughly one-third each Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca and around 13% alcohol.
The 2022 is, I wrote, ‘so very fresh with a juicy splash of strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants. Dried oregano herbal fragrance. Gentle, persistent tannins. Mouth-watering stoniness. Elegant and real Douro integrity’.
The 2021, from a cooler year, is a little tighter, a teeny bit shorter, but also essence of Douro with mouth-watering freshness: wild-herb fragrance, tannins that feel like river over rocks, a touch of tamarillo and sun-dried tomato.
They’re both wines that belong on a table piled with bowls of bitter leaves and fat slices of tomatoes glistening with salt flakes and peppery olive oil, paper-thin ribbons of jamón ibérico, chunks of dark, soft rustic bread and creamy sheep’s cheese. Or next to a generous bowl of pasta amatriciana. Although, quite frankly, it’s the kind of wine you could have with baked beans on toast, or pizza, or a bacon sandwich.
The wines are very, very good value (VVGV, as Julia noted for both the 2018 and 2019 vintages). The 2022 has already been shipped to the UK, though some stores may still have stock of the 2021. Tesco sells the 75-cl bottle for £11.25, Ocado for a smidge more at £12, and various other independents for around £15. In Europe, the 2022 (75-cl) can be found for as little as €5.98, and it’s available in Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia and Ireland. It’s easier to find the 2021 in the US at the moment, and it starts for $12.95 at Michael’s Wine Cellar in Florida but also available in Connecticut and Minnesota. Total Wine has exclusive distribution for the 2022 and are selling it for $19.99 (mix six $17.99).
Rest assured, this wine is greenwash-free. For anyone who would like to scrutinise the project in more depth, this Wild 2024 report goes into quite a bit of detail:
More than that, it’s a cause genuinely worth supporting, and you get a bottle of wine in return! Next on my list is to go and stay at their WilderCamp.
All photos provided by Rewilding Portugal.
For more on sustainability and regenerative farming in the wine world – free of greenwashing – see our extensive array of articles on these topics.
