Luis is a very engaging, independently minded man whose warmth and ready smile obscures a spine of steel and an unflinching determination to do what is right. Although he is Bairrada`s finest and certainly most thoughtful producer, he hasn`t labelled most of his wines as such for years. He `moved` to Beiras when the `wrong person` was made head of the region. He wants to make Portuguese wines, not new world ones and although not afraid of innovation, this is exactly what he does. He just does it better than anyone else. His wines are approachable younger than the old norm in Bairrada and Luis` chemical engineer background and science-driven, empirical approach has, perhaps unexpectedly, given us extraordinary wines of huge personality.

Take his best whites. He looked at an ancient map of the region and when a great white wine vineyard came up for sale in the area designated best for white, trusted the old knowledge and bought it. It`s terrific. Luis Pato is undoubtedly one of Portugal`s leading winegrowers. (CW 10/07/14)