Luis Seabra Opposes the Winemaking Orthodoxy

I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Levi Dalton

Levi Dalton, Spain, Terroir, Napa Valley, Winemaker, Red Wine, Food, Burgundy, Personal Journals, Restaurant, Australia, Sommelier, Journalist, Portugal, Vineyard, Piemonte, Grape, Interview, Arts, Society & Culture, White Wine, Loire Valley, Champagne, Sicilia, Austria, Tuscany, Conversation, Hobbies, Wine Business, Leisure, Bordeaux, Sonoma, Feedpodcast, Wine, Germany, Author

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2018

⏱️ 108 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Luis Seabra is the proprietor and winemaker at Luis Seabra Vinhos, producing dry wines from the Douro Valley and the Vinho Verde regions of Portugal.

Luis discusses his beginnings working as a plant specialist at an university, his work doing vineyard trials for the Portuguese government, the nine years that he made dry wines at the house of Niepoort, and on to the founding of his own winery. Over the course of the interview Luis takes up all kinds of topics relating to Portuguese wine, such as vine material, grape varieties, the soil types in different areas, historical wine blending practices, and the winemaking norms in differnet parts of the country, as well as how those have changed over time. He explains the evolution in his own thinking concerning both winemaking and vineyard practices. Luis clearly illustrates what he means by contrasting his own thoughts and techniques with the dominant thinking in the surrounding area. Those wanting a deep dive into topics like whole cluster, skin maceration, pressing, and élevage, will find Luis a capable guide. He also discusses the different character of recent vintages for his own wines.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.
0:05.1	I'm Levy Dalton.
0:06.1	I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, Louis Ciabra of Louis Ciabra Vinos. Hello sir, how are you?
0:28.0	Very good. Thank you for having me here.
0:31.0	So your dad was a coffee blender in Angola? Yes, my father went to Angola at a very young age and in between many jobs the last job was being a coffee blender. Angola was a So it makes sense that your parents wanted to move because there was a war of independence.
0:55.6	Yeah, then it was the revolution, war of independence, the country was not safe anymore,
0:59.7	so all the family like most of the Portuguese families they came back to
1:03.8	Portugal. What was Portugal like in the 70s? I mean as a kid what was it like for
1:08.2	you? In the 70s Portugal changed a lot. Portugal is a totally different country.
1:15.0	Was a much more closed society, actually very close for someone that would be coming from Africa.
1:24.4	Very traditional, in the wine consumption was very traditional,
1:27.8	everyone would drink the same wine every day, the same brand.
1:40.0	And even the food with very good products was not very inventive or very adventurous. So being in my house cooking a foreign dish would be something that my friends wouldn't have in their house.
1:50.0	You went to school in the Traces Montes, right? Which is in Altadiro?
1:54.0	Yes, the university I've done there.
1:56.0	I didn't study inology, so I studied agronomy in general and specialized in viticulture.
2:02.0	At the young age, was still in university,
2:05.0	I had my first child.
2:07.0	So I also need to start working.
2:10.0	And someone in university proposed me to be working and teaching in university.
2:15.0	And I teach everything related to the plants, from the cells to the tissues, to all the organs in the plant and it was an interesting experience to deal
2:28.5	with younger people and to learn how to lead them in a certain way, a little bit like in the wines, not being
	...

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