Circa three decades ago, after travelling the world on business, engineer Hernâni Verdelho has returned to his family’s estate situated in a sunny slope in the Douro region, to start a unique wine tradition.
Imbued with energy fuelled by sweet memories from his youth, he recovered the old vines and planted new ones in medium high slopes with sheltered schistose soils with excellent sun exposure.
His mission was guided by competent agronomists that carried the modern wine making methods and techniques to the untouched depths of the Douro region. The result of that alchemy was a 15 hectares compound where rare vine varieties are harmoniously combined in old vineyards and endemic vine varieties perfectly suitable for the terroir.
Therefore, some pre phylloxera rarities, probably not included in the current IDVP registry, such as Casculho, Cornifesto, Tinta Raiz, Silveirinha, Donzelinho and Folgazão join Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão, Rabigato and Verdelho.
Nothing was randomly done in Quinta do Carrenho. The cellar, half-buried, facing north and thermally isolated, guarantees the ideal conditions for the wine aging process. The storeroom also ensures ideal temperature and humidity conditions for the aging in the bottle. The oenological compound includes a laboratory, a wine cellar, a tasting room and a training room to host visitors and hold meetings and courses. This complex largely contributes to the improvement of the wine making process.
This labor is shown untouched in D. Berta’s wines which are very exquisite and are among the best wines produced in the Douro region. The great critic João Paulo Martins, in his canonic wine guide of Portugal, widely praises the several variations of the portfolio emphasizing the white and the red ones of Vinha Centenária - the elegant Rabigato and the Tinto Cão Reserva, particularly gastronomical and original.
Baptized after the name of the founder’s mother in a touching homage, all Dona Berta’s wines display the significant character of the great vines from Douro and the gratitude of the one who has returned to his land where he disclosed the best of himself, as Hernâni Verdelho has done.
