The wines of Quinta do Vale Meão

Quinta do Vale Meão is one of the leading wineries in Portugal's Douro valley. The estate was founded in 1877 by Antónia Adelaide Ferreira. Today her descendant Francisco Javier de Olazabal, together with his son and daughter, makes dry Portuguese wines that rank among the best in the country.

When Antónia Adelaide Ferreira bought 300 hectares of virgin land from the municipality in 1877, her dream was to establish modern vineyards on it, using the knowledge she had gained after years of winemaking. She never got to see that dream come true - she died a few years later - but the estate has always remained in the hands of her descendants.

In fact, her dream has only really come true recently. In 1994, Francisco Javier de Olazabal bought the by-then fragmented vineyards from his relatives. At the time he was still working as general manager of the renowned Port house Ferreira, also family property. He left there in 1998 to focus entirely on Quinta do Vale Meão, together with his son Francisco, then a freshly graduated oenologist. Daughter Luisa now also works at the Quinta.

The family strives to make original and complex wines, in the top segment of the market, with great feeling for the traditions of the Douro. A large part of the vineyards has been replanted since the 1980s. Touriga Nacional plays the lead role - although it's difficult to maintain and gives a fairly low yield per hectare, hardly any other grape fits so beautifully into the terroir of the Douro valley. On different soil types it gives a different character to the wine, something the Quinta consciously plays into. It has given the Quinta an excellent reputation, as one of the best wineries in Portugal.

If you want to know more about this winery, here you will find the link to the website of Quinta do Vale Meão.