Quinta do Vallado

Quinta do Vallado, established in 1716, is one of the oldest and most famous "Quintas" in the Douro Valley.

It once belonged to the legendary Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, and still belongs to her descendents. It lies on both banks of the Corgo River, a tributary of the Douro river, near its mouth, close to the town of Peso da Régua.

For almost 200 years, Quinta do Vallado´s main activity was the production of Porto wines, that were commercialized by the Ferreira Port House (belonging to the Ferreira family).

Following Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira´s great achievement, her great-grandson Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, and his son Jorge Cabral Ferreira were the main architects of the further development of the Quinta's vineyards and winery.

THE ESTATE - MODERN TIMES

Moving from the centuries-old tradition of selling the farm´s production to the Ferreira Portwine House, in 1993, under the direction of Guilherme Álvares Ribeiro and his wife Maria Antónia Ferreira, the company decided to extend the business towards the production, bottling and marketing of own-label wines.

Also in 1993 under the guidance of Prof. Nuno Magalhães, a deep restructuring of the vineyards was started, with the goal of increasing the production of high quality grape varieties.
These new vineyards were planted with the best varieties in single plots, breaking with the old tradition of planting many different varieties in the same vineyard.

The homogenization of treatment, ripening and picking times resulted in dramatic improvements to all harvesting and vinification processes, and translated into a much more regular, easy to control and economically efficient quality production.

One of the methods introduced was to implement a general preliminary survey of the crop. This allows to prune out surplus clusters from some of the high-producing varieties, while still green, greatly enhancing the quality and the richness of the remaining grapes.

With 50 ha of vineyards aged from 6 to 15 years and having kept 20 ha of the best old plots, some more than 90 years old, Quinta do Vallado, and it's executives João Ferreira Álvares Ribeiro, Francisco Ferreira (head of agricultural management) and Francisco Olazabal (oenologist), all descendants of Dona Antónia, has achieved internationally acclaimed levels of quality and recognition.

The construction of the new winery and barriques cellar started in 2008 and was concluded in the fall of 2009. It combines state of the art technology with a high quality architecture project, making it one of the must-see places in the Douro valley.

Quinta do Vallado´s 70 ha of vineyards are for the most planted in south and west facing slopes of slate soil, excellent for an optimum ripening of the grapes, taking advantage of the Mediterranean climate.

Two thirds of the vineyards are planted in terraces with a single row of vines, pruned according to the double cordon system.
The dominant varieties are, in reds, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Barroca, Tinta Amarela and Sousão, and in t whites, Viosinho, Rabigato, Moscatel, Verdelho (Gouveio) and Arinto.

Reds: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Barroca, Tinta Amarela and Sousão.

Whites: Viosinho, Rabigato, Moscatel, Verdelho (Gouveio) and Arinto

The old vines follow the ground lines and are planted in continuous rows distanced 1.2 m, with 1m between each plant.
They consist of a field blend of more than 40 varieties, the predominant ones being Tinta Amarela, Tinta Roriz, Barroca and Touriga Franca.

In 2009 Quinta do Vallado decided to increase its area of vineyards, having chosen the Upper Douro as the most favorable location to do so. Quinta do Orgal, located in Castelo Melhor - Vila Nova de Foz Côa was acquired and since then more than 30 acres of organic vineyards have been planted.

The grapes are taken to the winery in small boxes, to avoid crushing and overheating, and are then dropped onto a sorting belt that carries them to the crusher.

From there they fall by gravity to stainless steel fermentation vats with automatic pumping over and temperature control, where they are fermented for about 7 to 8 days, at a temperature of 26 to 28 degrees Celsius. In some of the vats a mechanical robot is used to thread the grapes.

A small percentage of the grapes are foot treadded in granite lagares using the traditional method.

For the Port the treatment is different: during the fermentation spirit is added to the moist; the excess of alcohol on the moist stops the fermentation, so not all the the sugar is transformed into alcohol. In the case of Vintage Port Adelaide, where a high extraction is wanted, the grapes are foot trodden in the tradiotional granite Lagares.

WINE HOTELS

Quinta do Vallado, Régua

Since 2005, Quinta do Vallado can host guests in its renowned Wine Hotel.

Guests are presented with the opportunity to stay at our Manor House, once belonging to Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, built in 1733 and recently refurbished. In addition, a new building was concluded in 2012. This new wing, built mainly out of slate, the predominant material in the region's soil, was designed by Arq. Francisco Vieira de Campos.

As a whole, Quinta do Vallado offers 13 rooms, 5 in the Manor House and 8 in the New Wing. All rooms and suites are equipped with A/C, TV and Wi-Fi access.

The estate has a stunning swimming pool and offers multiple activities such as walks, bicycle rides, boat trips, fishing sessions, picnics, cooking classes and wine tastings. We also provide free parking and transfer service, to and from the airport.

Casa do Rio, Foz Côa

Over the past decade, Quinta do Vallado decided to increase its area of owned vineyards, having chosen the Upper Douro as the most favorable location to do so. Quinta do Orgal, located in Castelo Melhor - Vila Nova de Foz Côa, was acquired, where in 2009 the first vineyards started to be planted. 

The beauty of this place, its remarkable state of conservation allied to the strength of the environment, and the absolute solitude and silence, have such a deep impact on those who go there, that it would be a waste not to share this unique experience with others.  

For this reason, we decided to create an extension of Quinta do Vallado's wine hotel , in Regua - having built Casa do Rio, in this new property - with only 6 suites, strategically located between the Vineyards and the River and with an outstanding view to the Douro Valley. 

The construction materials had to be environment "friendly", this is why we decided towards a building solely made of wood - and "suspended" - placed just above the water line, where an ancient orange orchard still exists.

The project was made by the same architect responsible for Quinta do Vallado's Hotel and Winery - Francisco Vieira de Campos. Recently, the hotel was recognized for having the finest "Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices" in the Porto and Douro Region. The honor came as part of the Best of Wine Tourism Awards of 2016.

Guests will have a unique experience surrounded by nature, and in addition to the accommodation, meals are available, as well as wine tastings and all sorts of land and river activities.