Uncondemned is a project born from a simple act of rescue. 

André Gomes-Pereira, winemaker at Quinta do Montalto in Lisboa, noticed that the rural villages north of Lisbon were losing their ancient backyard vineyards as each new generation moved to the cities for work. So he partnered with UK importer Portuguese Story to acquire fruit from nine tiny sites with vines between 120 and 150 years old, all farmed organically or in conversion, saving the fruit from going to waste and preserving the landscape in the process. 

The wine is made in the palhete tradition: a style recorded by monks several centuries ago and practiced throughout central Portugal until it was largely abandoned for commercial reasons in the 1970s, in which red and white grapes are co-fermented together in open cement tanks. 

With minimal sulfur as the only additive, the result is lighter and fresher than a conventional red, a style increasingly recognized as better suited to the warm Lisboa climate. The label's medieval rabbit illustrations are a nod to that monastic history, and the name says everything: these vines were nearly lost, and now they're not.