Quinta da Romaneira

Romaneira is one of the largest estates on the region, with a total of 412 hectares and 3 kilometres of river frontage on the river Douro. The vineyards are planted on terraces on the steeply sloping hills of the property: with many valleys and promontories, Romaneira contains several microclimates and various South Easterly, South Westerly and Southern facing slopes. Several of Romaneira’s wines are site specific and sourced from small individual parcels within the Quinta. Other wines such as the Dona Clara or the Reserva are sourced from various sites throughout the Quinta, reflecting the complexity and diversity of the whole vineyard. All our wines are made exclusively from grapes from our vineyard, a distinctive characteristic of Quinta da Romaneira wines.

The decision to renovate Romaneira in 2004 was based on a belief, since vindicated by the outstanding quality of the wines we have been able to produce here, that Romaneira possesses one of the great vineyard terroirs of the Douro. Our old vines have been lovingly spruced up and cared for. Vines have also been replanted, offering a wider range of expression of the various different microclimates and individual terroirs at the Quinta. The vineyard today has 86 hectares planted, principally with the noble Douro grape varieties of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz and Tinto Cão, but also a significant proportion of white grapes (Gouveio, Viosinho, Boal and Rabigato). We also have several hectares planted to Syrah and Petit Verdot, both of which produce excellent results at Romaneira, either as site specific varietal wines, or in the blend of Dona Clara.

Although technology on its own cannot make a great wine, even a good team with a great terroir can find life difficult without the right tools. We decided in 2005 to construct a new winery at Romaneira. For Christian Seely and Antonio Agrellos this was a long dreamed of opportunity to construct the ideal Douro Valley winery, starting from scratch. Most wineries in the Douro are far from ideal, dating back to their 18th or even 17th century origins. This makes them very picturesque, but not usually very practical. At Romaneira we were able to dig a large hole in the ground and then build the winery we wanted to make, two thirds underground (aesthetically very pleasing but also very practical for storage of wines in cool stable conditions). Our lagares are in stainless steel, which means that as well as all the traditional advantages of foot treading grapes for Port Wine, we also benefit from the technical ability to heat and cool them. Our vatroom consists of stainless steel temperature controlled conical vats, which give us the flexibility we need to be able to express fully the personality of the vineyard of Romaneira.