Antonio Maçanita is the extraordinary talent behind the wines at FitaPreta in Alentejo, southeastern Portugal. Named as Portuguese winemaker of the year by Revista dos Vinhos in 2018, Antonio has achieved fame in the Portuguese wine world (and indeed, the wine world at large) for his balanced wines that achieve that ever-fleeting partnership between elegance and power. Fitapreta Tinto, from the sun-drenched Alentejo, is one such wine – very clearly from a warm and sunny place, but made in a way that mitigates the over-extraction that so often results in this warm climate. Using gravity-fed winemaking techniques and painstaking work in the vineyard allows for a red wine that has the stuffing to age for years, but drinks beautifully right this very minute. Dark fruited and rich, with balancing acidity and a focused beam of minerality through the mid-palate.