Quinta do Vesúvio

Sociedade agrícola da Quinta do Vesuvio, Lda.

Although historical records mention Vesúvio as early as 1565 it was primarily under the auspices of the Douro's redoubtable widow, Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, that this vineyard estate acquired its legendary reputation. The quinta has 7 hills (and so has Lisbon and Rome) and 30 valleys within its walls. The estate's founder was her husband’s father who 1823 began the ambitious task of planting the vineyard. This gargantuan enterprise involving the shaping and construction of terraces on the intractable slopes and the planting of hundreds of thousands of vines took his legions of workers thirteen years to complete. When he died in 1835 Antonia had just been married for 3 months with his son with the same name. After her husband’s death, she continued to develop the property which included several new quintas and which under her able management became the show-piece quinta of the Douro.

The quinta remained in the hands of the family with 18 owners and the grapes were sold to Ferreira until 1989 when the property was purchased by the Symington family. Now the quinta is not tied to any single company and the plan is to run and marketing the quinta independently. It is back to Dona Antonia’s days when she sold her wine to English wine merchants and the quinta’s name appeared on the labels. Excellent years they also declare Capela da Quinta do Vesuvio as a top brand of Quinta do Vesuvio. The first year of this was 2007.

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