Morais Vineyards and Winery

February 1, 2025.  Morais Vineyards and Winery is a surprising outpost of Portugal off Route 17 in Bealton, Fauquier County.  José Morais opened the winery and wedding venue in 2011 promoting traditional Portuguese wines and winemaking.  His daughter, Linda, is now CEO.  Their winemaker, Vitor Guimarãis, is from Portugal - born and educated - and has been with them since the beginning. 

Drive through the newer part of the vineyard adjacent to the road, and for the moment, drive straight ahead past the round tasting room into the courtyard a typically stark-white Portuguese villa which serves as a large wedding venue.  The main building, – ballroom, bar- and smaller outbuildings buildings host over 100 weddings a year.  It’s like a little village. 

 

Our focus, however, is on the wine and we came back to the tasting room, a round stand-alone building with a cone-shaped roof, reminiscent of the roofs in Algarve.   

 

A round tasting bar dominates the room with a dramatic column of wines rising to roof beams fanning out like spokes of a wheel. 

 

Morais has outdoor seating on the surrounding porch and in the grounds.  Children are allowed as are pets, outside.  You should plan to bring your own food because the food selection is very limited.  Minor warning here: the Classic Wine Tasting comes with a small charcuterie plate, but it’s barely enough for one and certainly not for lingering.

Morais has 17 acres of vines growing Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Touriga Nacional, Vidal Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Alvarinho (Albariño), and Chambourcin.  In addition to these, they import Cabernet Sauvignon from California and Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) from Washington State. 

All of the wine is made onsite in the production facility underneath the wedding venue.  Our server, Bob, affirmed that the red wines at Morais are produced with no mechanical involvement.  All grapes are picked by hand, which is not unusual in Virginia, but the grapes are pressed by the feet of volunteers.  This foot-stomping in the old ways stuck with me ever since we lasted visited Morais nearly eight years ago.  (Back then, I asked whether foot stomping was sanitary.  They answered that the stompers don’t use their naked feet – they use boots.) 

A  Classic Tasting at Morais is eight wines you select from a long list.  Here’s what we tried:

2023 Battlefield.  This is Morais’ vinho verde wine made from Alvarinho grapes.  It is light, dry, and high acid – tart apple.  A good hot weather thirst quencher, would pair well with something creamy to cut the tartness.  I rate it a B.

2023 Verdelho.  Compared to Battlefield, this has medium body.  Still tart but with some rusticity and herbs.  Another B.

2021 Cabernet Franc.  Full-bodied, medium tannin.  Chewy, earthy.  Leather notes.  Some finish.  A fairly complex wine.  No pepper.  B.

2021 Touriga Nacional.  Lights up the nasal passages.  Full-bodied, dry, and complex with a nice long finish.  Plum notes.  I rated it a B+ and bought bottle.

2021 Comendador.  Lighter and less complex than the Touriga.  Raspberry notes.  B.

2022 Alvarinho.  Very light and citrusy compared to the vinho verde.  Nice acidity.  B.

2021 Tourâo.  This is a blend of 65% Souzao and 35% Touriga Nacional.  Fruit, smoke and cocoa notes.  B+.

2022 Jeropiga.  Our last wine was a traditional dessert wine used in Portuguese Fall harvest celebrations.  In Portugal it is a fortified with aguardente or brandy at the start of fermentation.  Morais’ version has an elegant sweetness, fortification evident in its syrupy legs.  It is light ruby in color.  Taste of toasted fruits.  I rate it a B. 

We spent a nice afternoon at Morais speaking with Lisa and Alexis Richmond of Ruby Imports.  While their business imports Turkish wine, it was good to see that one of their favorite hobbies is traveling to Virginia wineries.  We shared the new Virginia winery map with them and hope they have happy trails. 

Addendum  March 4, 2025. 

After this post, David Foster, winemaker at Mountain Run Winery, raised some questions to which the winemaker at Morais, Vitor Guimarãis, responded.  Basically Mr. Guimarãis clarified that Morais does foot stomp grapes but uses machinery to destem, crush, and press grapes.  I have included their exchange for clarity.

David Foster:  Very interesting that they say they don't mechanically press their grapes. human feet (w/o boots) are soft enough to not extract heavier/bitter tannins when foot pressing, but boots would be harder and would extract more tannins. Likewise, my understanding is that foot-pressed grapes must be removed from their cluster first or else the stems are broken by the pressing, resulting in off flavors. We experimented with foot-pressing grapes a while back but it was too time consuming to decluster them and remove the stems by hand. Perhaps they use a machine to do this, and then foot crush? … .

Vitor Rodrigues Guimarãis:  David.  This is something that was created by a former tasting room manager years ago that keeps resurfacing every now and then, much to my dismay. I believe that that person came up with this “story” because people tend to confuse foot stomping with pressing. We do use machinery - destemmer/crusher and press. Foot stomping is done barefoot and is very sanitary, contrary to popular belief.

David Foster: Thanks for the clarification. I agree that foot stomping is both sanitary and can produce an excellent wine! … .