MOB Bical 2023

MOB Bical Branco 2023 is a high-altitude, food-friendly wine from the Dão demarcated region, created by the prestigious M.O.B. project of winemakers Jorge Moreira, Francisco Olazabal and Jorge Serôdio Borges.

The Wine Advocate
RP 93

Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

The 2023 Bical, a varietal white, was made for the first time this year, from 30-year-old vines on the slopes of the Serra da Estrela. It fermented in a 2,000-litre French oak vat, where it aged on the lees for nine months.

This wine was created as a way to better understand Bical and Encruzado. Commercially, Encruzado works very well, but Bical is an excellent grape: more austere, with higher acidity, giving vibrant wines.

This is a bright, young and very impressive wine. It has 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.26 and 6.68 g/l of acidity. 2,500 bottles were produced. It was bottled in August 2024.

M.O.B. stands for Moreira, Olazábal and Borges, that is, Jorge Moreira of Poeira, Francisco “Xito” Olazábal of Quinta do Vale Meão and Jorge Borges of Pintas — all Douro projects. They're long-time friends who decided to start a joint project making wines in a different region: the Dão.

They started in 2011, almost 15 years ago. They leased Quinta do Corujão, an estate with 11 hectares of vineyards in Seia, which they bought five years later. They also lease other very old vineyards in Gouveia, at 600 metres. Today they make around 100,000 bottles.

2022 and 2023 were quite hot, but the vines suffered more in 2023. 2021 was an extremely balanced, fresh year, and 2024 follows the same trend. Harvest is always late, about 15 days after most producers, as their vineyards are in cool areas.

Published: 22 January 2026