I’m João Tereso, a sound engineer who ventured into winemaking in 2017 to save my grandfather’s small plots of field-blend vines in Alcobaça, an hour north of Lisbon, from abandonment. With the guidance of a great friend, local agronomist and winemaker Rodrigo Martins, I learned how to care for the vines. By 2018, I had begun tending to two additional neglected vineyards in the Tojais Valley. These vines, aged between 40 and 80 years, are situated on hillsides at about 150 meters (around 500 feet) elevation and have been farmed organically since 2021. Being just 15 minutes from the Atlantic means that even in early September, when we pick, nights can be chilly and mornings misty. Our wines are crafted with “low doses of sulphur and high doses of care and attention.” Discussing field blends and the labor they require, I often say, “The fun is to live with it.”

I am often asked about the origin of the name Chinado. Let me explain  . . . My friend Claudia, an illustrator and bass player I’ve known for years, created the original illustration. Along with it came the name, even before our first vintage. ‘Chinado’ is slang for ‘stabbed,’ as ‘chino’ is slang for knife. Some of my wines can catch you off guard and might give you a small nick, in a good way, I always hope. Additionally, ‘chino’ also refers to a stone used to demarcate property boundaries, so a plot marked by stones is ‘chinado.’ For years, I wasn’t concerned with selling or marketing the wines because I was too focused on learning how to cultivate the grapes and create the wines I envisioned. When the pandemic finally gave me the time to focus on it, I pulled the drawing out of the drawer. It fit the wines perfectly, and thus the brand was born.