Adega dos Cachos Verdes restaurant

We’re going to promote Bucelas; we’re going to promote our wine"

Wine first shaped the place; the restaurant followed almost naturally, as did its name.

When Rolando and his wife decided to invest in Bucelas, they were looking for more than an estate: they wanted somewhere they could develop a project bringing together winemaking, tourism and food. They found it in a region which, to their minds, still keeps one of its greatest assets almost secret: Bucelas DOC Arinto.

The enthusiasm with which Rolando talks about Arinto reminds us of one rather... sizeable detail: Bucelas belongs to that select group of wine regions that devote virtually all their appellation production to white wines. ‘Every region has its speciality’, he says. ‘The Douro, Dão or Alentejo make great reds. We make Arinto.’ That was the starting point for everything that followed.

They produce their own wine on the estate and have their own winery, but it was in the restaurant that they found the ideal way to present their work. At the table, visitors encounter the wine in precisely the context for which it was intended.

The wine list makes this clear from the outset. There are no labels from other regions — not for lack of interest, but because the intention was never to compile a list of Portuguese wines. ‘We’re going to promote Bucelas; we’re going to promote our wine,’ Rolando sums up. The dishes come afterwards, devised to accompany the house wines rather than the other way round.

That is also why the menu is tightly focused. Instead of endless choices or dishes prepared the day before, every meal that reaches the table is cooked to order. It is a choice that sets a different pace and ultimately defines the character of the place, accompanied by the classic jazz of Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington.

But here the star is always the rabbit — which, grilled, was for many years part of Bucelas’s gastronomic identity. Rolando wanted to bring it back, but in a way that could still surprise first-time visitors: served boneless, the rabbit is prepared using a technique of his own. Every now and then, someone turns up who has kept rabbits as pets — ‘Bambi’s little bunny,’ Rolando jokes. Even so, he assures us that many eventually venture a taste, discovering a light, delicate meat that proves particularly happy in the company of Bucelas Arinto.

Those inclined to take another route will find alternatives conceived according to the same principle. The pork fillet Wellington pays tribute to the Lines of Torres Vedras, whose presence is so strongly felt in this landscape. There is also beef chuletón, whenever the quality of the meat meets the restaurant’s standards; oven-baked shredded cod, prepared to order; and vegetarian dishes that reveal the couple’s previous experience with Italian cuisine, such as mushroom and asparagus risotto or grilled vegetable ravioli.

When the meal is over, we are left with the sense that the restaurant was never really just a restaurant, but one of the ways the Baptistas found to tell the story of Bucelas. Wine brought them here. At the table, they hope the path they have followed will become a road for those who come to visit.