The new Ribatejo resort that is an ode to winemaking
Australian property entrepreneurs David Clarkin and Andrew Homan are creating a sustainable luxury wine resort in Cartaxo near Santarém. ODE Winery Farm & Living will offer the perfect wine and rural tourism experience as Chris Graeme discovered.
You have a three or four-day city-break in Lisbon and fancy a day trip wine experience but don’t want to venture too far out of the capital because of time constraints. Where do you go?
Well, you couldn’t do better than heading off to the small village of Vila Chã do Ourique in Cartaxo near Santarém in the wine-growing region of the Ribatejo to visit the wine resort, ODE Winery Farm & Living which will take you just under an hour by car or by train to Santana-Cartaxo Station.
The 96-hectare wine estate has 22 hectares given over to vineyards that grow a dizzying range of grape varieties from the local Trincadeira Preta and Fernão Pires and Castelão – both from the Tagus region.
We are met by ODE winemaker and enologist Maria Vicente, who together with ODE Director of Marketing Diana Soeiro, take us on a tour of the winery, including the laboratories where they analyse the wine throughout the entire winemaking process.
This includes the adjacent wine cellars complete with oak casks inscribed with aeons-old graffiti, a small display of historical wine press machinery, including an impressive stone grape press from the early 20th century, several large maturing vats, some clay amphorae, and a vast underground wine cellar complex which, like a World War II bunker, is all but hidden from view from the surface covered in gravel and moss.
Maria, who has been with the project since 2022, has clocked up over 20 years of experience in wine making and has a considerable knowledge of the region’s grape varieties. Very much a wine educator, she is currently also a teacher at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET)
“The vineyards here do extremely well because the soil is very rich in chalk, which means you can grow a wide variety of grape varieties, including the Trincadeira Preta, which is native to the region, and Fernão Pires and Castelão, which are typical of the area”, she tells us.
In fact, Maria had been involved in her very own wine-related project, a four-star hotel, the Hotel Vínico Casa 1927 which merges wine culture with the Ribatejan lifestyle. The hotel boasts 23 rooms (14 suites and nine double rooms) offering guests the full experience of sampling the culture, cuisine and wines from the region in what at the time was a €3 million investment.
Maria introduces us to Jim Cawood, who has the amusing if apt title of ODE Director of Wines & Good Times. An Australian, Jim has had a varied career, including spending eight years in Ho Chi Minh City where from 2013 until 2022 he owned and managed the Lubu Restaurant, serving Italian, Mediterranean, Spanish and Greek dishes, and was also a wine importer, distributor and retailer in the same city from 2005.
A subterranean adventure
In fact, it’s quite an adventure exploring these cellars. From the outside you get the sense of a secret moss-covered bunker which belies the modern, state-of-the-art temperature-controlled environment that is reached by descending a long staircase into a deep cavernous abyss of red brick halls supported by grey concrete vaulted ceilings which reveal countless oak barrels – there are over 700 – bathed under the soft amber light of concentric ringed chandeliers.
The echoing eeriness is broken by a brightly illuminated space at the end of a central hall – a glass rectangular structure which is in fact a modern, state-of-the art room that serves as a conference room, a wine-tasting facility and a meeting room with the latest equipment you’d expect in a meeting room in a five-star hotel, boasting audiovisual technology, including a large flatscreen display and a microphone system.
The room is dominated by a large square dark wood and illuminated glass table surrounded by 16 comfortable black chairs beneath an ornate chandelier. It all looks straight out of a subterranean James Bond Istanbul adventure where you expect to be met by Ernst Blofeld stroking his white Persian cat while plotting to devour the word, except a tidy row of six wine glasses of different shapes gives the clue that our wine experience is about to begin, and the only thing being devoured is some exquisite whites and a red.
We sample a well-structured, gloriously ruby red ODE Touriga Nacional 2022, which is warm, velvety, spicy and aromatic. The grapes used to make this full-bodied wine, Touriga National, like Syrah and Aragonés, is usually associated with powerful tannic wines, however in this case the result is softer and smoother, with a burst of spicy red fruits. The wine is indicated for game and poultry, and is equally good with oily fish like salmon and tuna.
We also try three whites, starting with the ODE Semillon 2022, my favourite, which uses a grape variety that is quite unusual in Portugal, and is often associated with sweet wines. This wine, however, is dry with a low-alcohol content and natural acidity. Part of this wine (15%) was matured in 500 litre new French oak barrels for five months to add texture and precision. On tasting, it is dry with lemon and lime citrus notes with a touch of green apple, and gives a mineral overtone. It pairs perfectly with seafood.
We moved on to the ODE Viognier 2022 which is fermented in huge steel vats, and has aromas of white peach, nectarine, apricot and tropical flavours with hints of ginger and spice, giving a distinctive, yet delicate and classy wine.
The ODE Fernão Pires 2022, a bold yet elegant wine, was produced using new French oak barrels for five months to provide a floral, citrus and tropical aroma, with a hint of herbs to combine well with grilled pork or veal, seafood, and salad dishes.
The Arinto 2022 is considered the flagship wine in the ODE portfolio with its high natural acidity and low-alcoholic content. This red has a Burgundy style achieved by maturing 50% of the wine in 500 litre French oak barrels for five months to produce a truly elegant red wine with subtle aromas of pear and green apple, buttermilk, quince and vanilla. The wine is perfect for pairing for meat dishes with sauces, game, and risottos.
Leaving the wine cellars, and feeling somewhat lightheaded since I disdained to use the spittoon, which I simply find too inelegant, we pass some some glass cases tracing the history of the estate, which is an education in itself.
There was a winery built here in 1902 and was one of the largest in the regions, employing much of the local population in the village who produced a reasonably good table wine for local consumption. The low-lying rectangular coral-coloured buildings arranged around a courtyard, now fully restored and refurbished, are testament to this past.
A previous project, Vale d’Algares, which had involved a massive investment in 2000, failed and after several years inactivity the current project was conceived by Australian property entrepreneur David Clarkin and lawyer and real estate investment fund manager Andrew Homan, and Brazilian business woman Ana Araújo.
A sustainable wine resort
Focused on luxury and sustainability, ODE was the brainchild of David who had more than 30 years experience in investing and developing real estate in the Asian and Australian markets.
Together they created the sustainable development company Immerso Collective and ODE Winery Farm & Living is their first project in Portugal.
The essential philosophy behind Immerso is that all of the projects to be developed should boost the region and the local community in which they operate with integrated approaches, raging from commercial and residential properties to offers more directed at tourism.
At this juncture, we are informed that the owners have ambitious plans to transform this estate into a luxury wine resort with accommodation for tourists, including a 30-suite hotel, with the first units slated to open in 2026.
There are also plans to create a glamping site with 20 luxury tents, and 20 two and four bedroom villas for family rural holidays which combine the urban attractions of nearby Lisbon, the Knights Templar city of Tomar, and the medieval gothic city of Santarém.
A Japanese-Asian fusion fine wine and dining experience
We stop off for lunch at the ODE Cellar Door Restaurant where we sample Japanese and Asian-inspired gastronomy with an emphasis on izakya cuisine which combines fresh local ingredients from the Ribatejo provided by Japanese Chef Kai who trained under a master from Nagasaki.
Among the offerings brought to the table and served in a service ‘à la France’ are ‘Edamame’ (vapour-cooked soy beans), ‘Tako’ (octopus served with green tea, pickled cucumber, and algae), ‘Oshizushi’ sushi dishes, and ‘Buta Kakuni’ made with pork cheeks braised with soya, mirin, and ginger.
The meal was rounded off with a ‘Matcha Pavlova’, a dessert consisting of a green tea meringue with cream of sweet potato, strawberry, lime, caramel and aniseed, served with white chocolate and algae butter – all of this wash down with ODE wines.
Before we depart from our day out at ODE Winery & Living we visit the huge 1000m2 events hall next door to the restaurant, which is designed to hold different types of events such as business events and wedding receptions, and other special occasions.
It is all part of a concept to hold all-year-round events for wine lovers – both tourists and locals – including Jazz on the Green sessions on Sundays between 5pm and 7pm with jazz music in the Cellar Door Restaurant’s outdoor patio space.
ODE Winery Farm and Living also hosts a Stomping Party during grape harvesting in September where visitors can tread the grapes as part of a €65 package.
During the summer months, until September 15, the winery also offers day trips for groups of 10-20 people where visitors can help pick the grapes, tour the wine cellars and enjoy lunch at the restaurant and tread the grapes for €150 per person.
After your visit to ODE Winery Farm & Living, if you have time, it is worth strolling around the compact historic and picture-postcard village of Vila Chã de Ourique which is forever associated with the Battle of Ourique, which is believed to have taken place here on 25 July, 1139 when the forces of the Portuguese Count Afonso Henriques heroically defeated the forces led by the Almoravid Governor of Córdoba, Muhammad Az-Zubayr Ibn Umar, identified by King Ismar in the Christian chronicles.
It would later pave the way for the foundation of Portugal as a sovereign kingdom, freed from Moorish rule after 433 years. Here you can see Chavões Place dating from 1345 and the 18th century church.