Rita Marques

The Climb

Rita Marques trained at University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro and University of Bordeaux, laying the groundwork for a career shaped by rigorous study and an international outlook. That combination of local grounding and wider perspective reads clearly in the arc of her professional life: careful, disciplined, and attentive to detail, with the kind of training that gives structure to intuition. The path she followed suggests a maker drawn not only to technique, but to the larger conversation between place, grape, and time.

Today

In Cedovim, Marques leads winemaking for Conceito Vinhos. The role is the defining professional fact of her career: vineyard decisions, cellar judgment, and the final bottle meet under one responsibility. It is a position that asks for constant calibration, and her work sits at the intersection of agricultural realities and the quieter, more exacting craft of assembly and release. Under her oversight, the rhythm of the vineyard and the discipline of the cellar are brought into the same frame.

Signature

Rita's signature wines include Conceito Tinto 2003, Conceito Bastardo Tinto 2021, Conceito Legítimo Tinto 2019, Conceito Único Branco 2019, and Contraste Branco 2019. Together, these names trace a span of vintages and styles that underscore the breadth of her range, from red to white, and from earlier milestones to more recent expressions. They form a compact map of her work at Conceito Vinhos, each bottle carrying the imprint of the same steady hand.

In Their Words “This wine "comes to demonstrate a fact that for us was clear, but at the time was not supported by tasting: our wines improve in bottle for a long period of time.” “It was necessary to make them more profitable, creating brands that incorporated more value.” The language is revealing in its restraint. One statement looks toward time in the bottle, toward the slow unfolding of character after release; the other points to the practical realities of value, branding, and the structure of a wine’s place in the market. Together they sketch a winemaker thinking in both sensory and strategic terms, attentive to what the wine becomes and how it must live in the world.

Recognition

Her clearest recognition is tied to the wines’ capacity to develop after release. As she put it, "This wine \"comes to demonstrate a fact that for us was clear, but at the time was not supported by tasting: our wines improve in bottle for a long period of time." That recognition is less about spectacle than confirmation: a deeply held belief, proved through patience and bottle age, and articulated with the quiet certainty of someone who has watched a wine evolve beyond the moment of its making.