Factor XPTO: Remarkable, fearlessly experimental urban winery in Lisbon

Adega Belém is an urban winery located in Lisbon’s Belém neighbourhood. Run by winemakers and owners David Picard and Catarina Moreira, its annual production is 10-12.000 bottles of artisan premium wines in relatively small batches. All wines are fermented spontaneously without sulfites to preserve yeast biodiversity, create a strong terroir expression and emphasise varietal character. The wines are grown at their own rhythm, with carefully applied temperature control, a strong emphasis on craftsmanship, and the close “parental” supervision by the two oenologists, to allow them to mature into strong and vibrant personalities.

David and Catarina became winemakers after successful university research careers in Portugal and abroad. Once scientist, always scientist: Besides their love for sophisticated arts and crafts, both like to challenge conventions (now in the fields of winemaking) and experiment with grape varieties, new and old technology and different winemaking traditions — always with the maxim: the wines must be delicious!
Adega Belém is a collaborative project that continues the century-old co-operative tradition prevalent in Portugal of joining grape growers to winemakers (2200 grape growers and 120 wineries exist in the Lisbon wine region). Since its inception, the winery closely works with five vintners in and around the city of Lisbon, who share David’s and Catarina’s philosophy of low intervention winemaking, with vines thriving in the ecologically rich mixed landscapes of Lisbon’s Atlantic coast (rather than in large monocultures).

Adega Belém wines are available in Portugal’s buzzing wine bar scene and distributed in the Netherlands, Germany, France, the UK, Norway, Canada/Québec and Spain. David and Catarina participate at simplesmente… Vinho 2025 to meet likeminded people working in Portugal and abroad, including in key markets in which they have a lot of direct B2C activity which they would like to transfer to local/national distributors: Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland, possibly US and others.