Ciclo is the project of prolific Alentejo winemaker Hugo Campos, who also produces the wines of Quinta de Confeiteira and Oxalá. Ciclo as a project was born out of the stress and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. In Hugo’s words, “The world stopped and created the opportunity to reflect, to reinvent ourselves and to explore new ideas. From this context, an undertaking that we had idealized some time ago was finally born.” From this period of reflection, Hugo set out to start a wine label that was a return to the basics, which valued simplicity, nature, and the essence of the wine in its wildest version. This vision was realized when he purchased a small, dry-farmed vineyard in the hills surrounding the city of Estremoz and started producing small quantities of unique, experimental, naturally-produced wines. These Ciclo wines have been received with significant acclaim and enthusiasm, the ethos behind the project clearly resonating with wine drinkers both in Europe and the United States.
The idea of a Ciclo, or “cycle” in English is the concept at the heart of this project. Hugo has set out to grow and make wines with an absolute minimum of intervention both in the vineyard and in the cellar, free from all conventional rules and methods, in order to, in his own words, “mark a new cycle”. In creating wines that are expressive of the particular land where the grapes were grown and the characteristics of the vintage in which it was harvested, Hugo is also trying to encapsulate and express the natural cycles that contribute the unique characteristics of the vintage and individual wine. By constantly experimenting and producing small quantities of unique styles and expressions of wine from his vineyards, Hugo is also creating a system of cycles wherein his own irascible creativity and extensive prowess as a winemaker can be expressed.
