Prior Lucas, an interesting, innovative producer in Portugal’s Bairrada region
Website: https://priorlucas.pt/en/
Back in June 2025 I spent a day with Rui Lucas, who is making some really interesting wines from some interesting vineyard blocks in Bairrada.
The winery name is an amalgamation of his surname with the surname of his great grandfather, José Francisco Prior, who was a priest. He had vineyards in Souselas, but over the years the vines were lost, and now Rui’s mission is to recover some of the old vineyards in the region and make interesting wines from them. He began his work in 2013, and has grown things steadily, even though this is not a large operation.
Rui’s background is construction, and in the winery there are some concrete tanks that he built himself using limestone cement.
He now owns quite a bit of land. Our first stop was in a beautiful vineyard in Souselas called Val de Cavales, which he acquired fairly recently and is next to his initial property. Rui has stopped using herbicides and started to recover the soils here.
Our second stop was the family vineyard that was planted in 2020. He’s expanded this by buying the neighbouring property, and here there’s an irrigation system as an insurance.
One of the interesting facets of the Prior Lucas winery is the use of exotic woods to make barrels with. There’s a tank that’s made from mahogany. One large barrel is part chestnut, part acacia and part eucalyptus. And another barrel is just eucalyptus. This is something I haven’t seen before.
In the winery, Rui takes a low-intervention approach. He does use sulfites, though. He tried working without them but it doesn’t work. His view is that he could get away with it if he had lower pHs in his wines. Luis Lopes makes his Moreish wines in the same cellar, and he has lower pHs and is able to avoid sulfites.
Wine tourism is an important part of the business, and the winery is spacious and well set up for this.
THE WINES
Prior Lucas Domenical R 2021 Bairrada, Portugal
12% alcohol. This is from a centenarian vineyard with the white and red grapes mixed together and co-fermented (including some of the whites whole bunch at the bottom of the tank). Fermented in concrete and then aged in French oak. A lighter-style red that’s supple, fresh and bright with nice sappy green hints. Supple, elegant and refined. Cunchy and expressive. 94/100
Prior Lucas Habemus R 2022 Bairrada, Portugal
56% Baga, and the balance the likes of Trincadeira, Castelão and others. Lovely, vibrant, juicy fruit here with some redcurrant and raspberry fruit on the nose. Nice crunchy detail on the palate with brightness and elegance, and a reductive twist. Pure and crunchy with good freshness and purity, showing nice elegance. 94/100
Prior Lucas Habemus R 2023 Bairrada, Portugal
Two years of ageing in concrete. Aromatic and fine, with fresh red cherry fruit and a bit of raspberry. Lovely fruit here. Harmonious with ease and purity, and a hint of pepper. Bright with nice focus. 93/100
Prior Lucas Fenix Tinto 2022 Bairrada, Portugal
11.8% alcohol. For this wine Rui re-uses bottles. After Covid he couldn’t get bottles so he started then, and has kept on doing it because of the high carbon footprint of the wine bottle. This wine is a recreation of the Baga of old. It’s 100% Baga, 20% whole bunch, in stainless steel and then aged in the big mixed-wood barrel. So fresh and supple with bright, juicy red cherry and raspberry fruit. This has real elegance and freshness with crunchy red fruits and nice tannins and acidity. 94/100
Prior Lucas Fenix Tinto 2024 Bairrada, Portugal
From mixed-wood large barrel. This is minty, spicy and vivid with appealing raspberry and cherry fruit. Sappy with good energy. Nice structure and flesh here with some tannins. 94/100
Prior Lucas Fenix Branco 2023 Bairrada, Portugal
100% Bical. This is made in a mahogany tank and eucalyptus barrel, and then blended together. Complex, layered and minty. Fresh with lovely intensity, and quite a bit of impact from the eucalypt. Herbal, floral and minty. 93/100
Prior Lucas Habemus W 2022 Bairrada, Portugal
Concrete only, a blend of white varieties. Fresh, clean and bright with lovely citrus fruit and some salinity. Stony and vivid with pure acidity, and some dried herb character. 92/100
Prior Lucas Rosé 2023 Bairrada, Portugal
11.5% alcohol. This is Baga raised in mahogany. Fresh and detailed with a bit of spicy redcurrant character. This is really interesting. 92/100
