Historia
The history of the Quinta da Aveleda estate is lost in time, but there are countless records of this estate after the 16th century. It has always been an agricultural property made up of a collection of estates which were handed down over the years until around 1850, when Manoel Pedro Guedes de Silva da Fonseca, tired of life in the capital and of politics, started to fall in love with his estate and went to live at Aveleda. He was a man of great vision and devoted himself to the property, planting vines, carrying out works and developing the structures at the Estate; he also built a wine cellar with a capacity for 300 barrels.
The second son of Fernando Guedes - Roberto Guedes – started helping his father as soon as he finished military service. Out of all the children – four brothers and three sisters – at the time he was the only one to work at Aveleda, where he stayed on. In 1946, with the death of Fernando Guedes, the children set up an agricultural society to manage the property. It was during this period that the Estate developed the most, thanks to the dramatic increase in the sales of Vinho Verde to Brazil and markets in Africa. This period of prosperity was marked by frequent improvement works, the building of new buildings and the development of the gardens and park. Two names remain tied to this stage – Roberto and Fernando, who poured their life into the company.
During the 1950s and 1960s, huge investments were made in technology and human resources at a time when sales were growing exponentially, both in the domestic and in foreign markets. Casal Garcia, launched in 1939, was the first bottled Vinho Verde to be sold in Brazil and the main foreign markets were those of the former colonies. The Quinta de Aveleda wine also emerged around this time. At the end of the 1960s, António and Luís Guedes became the executive directors of the Society and continued the drive for growth and investment, in particular by planting 120 new hectares of vines following the most cutting edge techniques of the day.
After 1995, a new expansion phase began with significant investments to improve the production quality of the wines and packaging: alongside a significant increase in storage capacity, an improvement in the cold treatment of the wines and an improvement in the winemaking process, which started to be carried out based on grape varieties, the area of the bottling warehouse was increased and a new bottling line was established, together with other investments. The progress in computerisation was also significant, with an integrated project which covered all of the economic activities of the company and of the group which gradually developed around it.
Currently the largest Vinho Verde exporting company, Aveleda is proud to remain a family-owned business in every way.