Quinta Do Portal
Quinta do Portal is a family fine winemaking company that embraced with passion the “Boutique Winery” concept. They are producers of the world famous Douro wines, premium Port Wines and fortified Moscatel wines.
The project that started in the early 90’s of the XX century, had on its base Quinta dos Muros, a centenary estate of the Mansilha family and the Port Wine that was produced there for 4 generations. With a clear vision of the future, they made part of the first group of Douro winegrowers that believed in the Douro potential to make outstanding still wines.
Paulo Coutinho has been the head winemaker since 1994. They also count with the expert consultancy from Pascal Chatonnet since 1992 for the Douro wines, and they had the privilege to work with Jeremy Bull in the Port wines in the end of the 90´s and first years of the new century.
Quality has always been their motto, as can be seen by the countless international awards and 90+ points reviews given to their wines.
The estate that was known in the past as “Quinta do Casal de Celeirós”, has an area of 15 hectares surrounded by a schist wall.
It’s an historic Quinta with references in the end of the XIX century that considered it as a “Model Property”. It’s also mentioned historically as not having suffered the terrible plague of phylloxera.
In 1877 Henry Vizetelly, author of “Facts about Port and Madeira” drew the attention to the fact that this property hadn’t been affected by the plague and in 1886 the Viscount of Vilarinho de São Romão names it as a truly Model Property and writes: “it’s the only example that we know of a vineyard that didn’t suffer with the plague of phylloxera”.
It’s also historically recognized as being the first property in the Douro to admit women to tread grapes. Henry Vizetelly wrote: "The young women skillfully gathered their garments up around them. When all was duly adjusted they sprang into the lagar, and, delighted with their task, danced for a time among the grapes with the frenzy if not the grace of a troop of wild Bacchanals. The sight was certainly amusing, although the proceeding was, perhaps, not exactly a decorous one."
The average altitude of the estate is 500m and its vineyards have an Eastern exposure. The average age of the vines is 25 years.
Quinta do Portal is member of The Porto Protocol, a movement whose vision is a a world where companies join efforts and act together to slow and reverse climate change.
In May 2022 they installed photovoltaic pannels that will allow them to produce 50% of their electricity needs.
During the harvest they reuse the CO2 produced during fermentation to inert vats and "lagares"
Their vineyards are under integrated farm management, a farming system that has the objective of producing high quality grapes by using natural resources and regulating mechanisms to replace polluting inputs and to secure sustainable farming.
In their vineyards they use the following practices:
- non-mobilization of the soil;
- integration of the wood that results from pruning in the soil;
- non-utilization of residual herbicides;
- controlled and precise debits in the application of phytopharmaceuticals;
- usage of organic correctives;
- in slopes up to 40% of inclination they plant “Vinha ao Alto” (vertical planting);
- in slopes between 40-60% they plant one line of vineyard terraces, avoiding the use of herbicides between the terraces.
With the above practices they protect the auxiliary organisms, namely from the coccinellidae family. They’re also happy to see that bands of partridges have come back to their vineyards.