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Wine Description
The Story
In the Ferreira Cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia, lies what is probably the largest and finest collection of nineteenth and twentieth century wines, the oldest wine dating as far back as 1815.
The famous and very fine 1834 vintage, one of the best of the nineteenth century, was the centre of a tragic yet fascinating episode. In 1897, the Swedish explorer Auguste Andrée, along with two companions, decided to cross the North Pole in a balloon. On 14th July 1897 the balloon fell into the Arctic. Amazingly, it is known that on September 27th the explorers were still alive and held a banquet on a floating piece of ice. The main dish was seal and seagull breast, but the highlight of the banquet was a bottle of Vintage "D. Antónia Ferreira" Porto, 1834, a gift from the king of Sweden.
Ferreira wines have won gold medals at times and places as diverse as the Philadelphia International Exhibition (USA, 1876) and the Universal Exhibition in Paris (France, 1900), or the recent and prestigious International Wine Challenge (UK, 2009) , Vinales Internationales (France, 2008, 2010) or the Decanter World Awards (UK, 2009).
Ferreira 1851 was excellent and very fine, having earned the title of "Great Exhibition Vintage." Michael Broadbent (Master of Wine) tasted it in 1975 and considered it: "the most magnificent old port I have ever drunk". For this specialist, Ferreira Duque de Bragança 20 year Tawny Porto is his preferred everyday Porto wine.
Ferreira was the first Porto brand to emerge from selling wholesale, in barrel to selling exclusively in bottles. Ferreira was the first Porto brand to commit to the Reserve category with its Dona Antónia wine, and is a clear leader in this category. Ferreira's logo is a lesser rhea, a very elegant flightless bird that never takes a backwards step.
The television history series "A Ferreirinha", produced for RTP in 2004, was inspired by the life of Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira and the unique legacy she left Portugal, Douro and Porto Wine.
The Dona Antónia prize (established by her descendants and by the Ferreira company in 1988) annually distinguishes a Portuguese woman who stands out because of her entrepreneurial spirit and for her business organization and management skills for which Dona Antónia was also known. In 1861, Dona Antónia survived the sinking of a traditional rabelo boat in the rapids at "Cachão da Valeira", thanks to her wide dress that kept her afloat until she was rescued.
Dona Antónia was so important for the Douro Region that her funeral was attended by 95 priests and over 30,000 people.
The slogan "Foi você que pediu...?" is one of the most famous in Portuguese advertising history, with spontaneous recall rates only achieved by few other national campaigns.
Wine Information
Since 1751, the Ferreira name has always been synonymous with high-quality Portuguese wine. The brand's history is intertwined with the history of the evolution of the Douro Region (demarcated in 1756) and its Porto and table wines (Douro DOC).
The Ferreira family patriarch - who already owned vineyards that subsequently became a part of the Douro Specified Region - started his business in the mid eighteenth century. However, the company's foundations stem from the actions of his grandsons, José Bernardo and António Bernardo in the early nineteenth century, when they added considerably to the land they had inherited.
The marriage between their offspring, cousins António Bernardo II and Antónia Adelaide, would, in the next generation, consolidate a unique heritage and indelibly mark Ferreira's future.
Twice widowed, Dona Antónia did not merely manage an inheritance. She took over the business at 33, strengthening and expanding it thanks to her entrepreneurial spirit and charisma. She is still remembered in Portugal for her sound business ethics and as an example of good practice. Endowed with exceptional energy and a rare commercial talent, she gave great impetus to wine-growing in Douro and was well-known for her acts of social welfare in the region. Her intelligence and kindness earned her the warm admiration of her contemporaries, who affectionately nicknamed her "Ferreirinha" (little Ferreira).
After she died, the business became a limited company and began a new phase of adjusting and expanding to meet the needs of the times. Maintaining its core values - rooted in quality with its unique collection of estates in the Douro, the company has always supported the best œnological methods to produce excellent wines under one strong brand. These values have carried Ferreira into the 21st century and were instrumental in creating wines such as the legendary Barca Velha in the 1950's.
Acquiring Ferreira in 1987 allowed Sogrape Vinhos to immediately assume leadership of the Portuguese Porto wine market. In addition this acquisition enhanced its portfolio with some of the most prestigious Douro table wine brands and enriched its assets with a collection of the most important properties of the Douro Specified Region, such as the Leda, Porto and Caedo estates. Sogrape Vinhos was then able to preserve and enhance Ferreira's material, historic and cultural heritage: the bond between production and trade, the understanding of tradition in order to modernise, the emphasis on quality as the mainstay of the brand's prestige.
Today, more than 250 years later, Ferreira is "the Portuguese brand", the benchmark in excellent quality Porto and Douro wines, the symbol of a country and a culture it proudly honours