Bastardo: the wine bar in Cascais where every glass tells a story

A wine shop isn't just for buying and drinking wine. There are wine shops where you can also (alongside nibbling on cured meats and cheeses) have a good chat or learn something new. At the new wine bar Bastardo, on Rua Afonso Sanches, just as you reach Cascais Bay, you can, for instance, talk to Miguel Costa about his past working in the film and television industry – we're certain he'll have good stories to tell about when he filmed the Netflix series about Formula 1, Drive to Survive, or the movie The Fall, by Tarsem Singh. Meanwhile, sommelier João Diaz will always have a smile on his face and knowledge to spare about the history and flavour profile of the wines you can order and sip here.

Now, imagine: if the welcome is like this, the glasses are just as good or even better.

Bastardo was born from an idea by Beatriz (Bia) Lobato, a long-time friend of Miguel, who dreamed of opening a wine bar and challenged the producer to take the WSET course (the prestigious Wine & Spirit Education Trust training and certification institution) to join the adventure. "This project was entirely Beatriz's idea, who has always loved wine," recalls Miguel. "I took the courses, loved it and learned to develop a taste for wine." Later, João Diaz, who was working as a sommelier at the restaurant Calma in Lisbon, joined in, completing the partner team.

Fancy a Bolinha?

The venue's name is a nod to the Bastardo grape variety, known in France as Trousseau and revered by Bia, while also serving as a metaphor for wines outside the commercial circuit and big supermarkets. The space's mission is to give a stage to these resilient small national producers. "The small producer is usually someone who makes wine purely for the love of it. It's not to become a millionaire from the business. Our concept is to give value back to the small producer."

João Diaz reinforces the connection with the country's culture and diversity. "We believe in this vision that wine is more than a product, it's a culture. We want to represent this variety that we have in Portugal."

On Bastardo's menu, wines are divided by the glass and by the bottle, featuring a carefully curated selection of whites, reds, rosés, palhetes, orange wines (curtimenta), sparkling and fortified wines. Time Out had the opportunity to taste options like the Bolinha orange wine (€11 by the glass), from Casa Mouraz in the Dão region, which features a playful photo of a dog on the label and has been catching customers' attention.

This was followed by the refreshing Passo Gigante sparkling wine made from the Loureiro grape (€6); the Lou 38 orange wine (€7); and the exclusive red Ramilo Ramisco Colares DOC (€45 served by Coravin). The Ramisco grape vines have the unique peculiarity of being planted in "chão de areia" (sandy soil) in the dunes by the Atlantic Ocean.

And for nibbles?

To accompany the glasses and bottles, the food menu focuses on high-quality traditional Portuguese charcuterie and cheeses, offering olives (€1), cured ham sandwiches (€8), cheese platters (€12) and Alentejo Black Pork cured meat platters from Barrancos (€9).

The conversation is flowing – and so are the wines and snacks – but we still need to talk about the future. The team behind Bastardo want to expand their guided tasting sessions, organize partnerships with other establishments, consolidate take-away bottle sales and take the curation of this project further. "Recently, I received the first invitation to curate a wine selection for an event outside the bar," confesses Miguel. "This is something that interests us, being able to be curators for events."

Further down the road, who knows, they also hope to bring in wines from other countries, but for now, the mission is to showcase a little more of Portugal. "One thing we'd love to explore is running more tastings so people can come, do that tasting, and get to know a little more of their own country," anticipates João Diaz.

See also: Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a restaurant? It's Barro, and it wants to surprise all of Cascais

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