Howard Bilton and David Baverstock have strengthened their collaboration by building a state-of-the-art winery in Estremoz. This will enable them to increase production from the current 60,000 bottles to 300,000 bottles over the next 5 years. The new facility will be fully operational in September 2018.
Since 2002, Howard Bilton and David Baverstock, Portugal’s premier winemaker, have partnered to bring to the market a range of outstanding wines under the Howard’s Folly label. Buying grapes from local vineyards and renting production capacity, they have consistently created wines which gain high scores in the wine bible, Parker’s Review and which have caught the attention of respected critics.
When the latest of a string of temporary production arrangements let them down, Howard and David decided to take the plunge and invest in their own winery.
Commenting on this exciting development David Baverstock said: “The new winery provides us with the permanent home we have been lacking, allows us to increase production and gives us the flexibility to make small batch wines. We have now connected with many local farmers who have very small plots of very old vines. From those parcels we plan to make single vineyard super premium wines. We have developed a business plan to gradually increase output over the next 5 years from the existing 60,000 bottles to a total of 300,000.”
The location of the winery is no accident. Already the gourmet capital of the Alentejo, Estremoz will shortly host a very large and beautiful art museum being built by Joe Berardo which seems sure to attract very large numbers of additional visitors to town.
Howard Bilton explained: “We want Howard’s Folly winery to reinforce Estremoz’s position as a tourist hub to the benefit of all local businesses. We aim to be a good neighbour and support the local community. Our longer-term plans include construction of a substantial visitor center. In the short term our focus is to continue producing world-class wines and we will welcome visitors to the winery itself.”
