Rare are the estates that remain for as long as four centuries under the domain of the same family. According to evidence that goes back to 1605, this was what happened with Quinta das Brôlhas, four kilometers away from Régua, in the Douro Wine Region. Nowadays, owned by Macário de Castro Fonseca Pereira Coutinho, descendant of a vast lineage, this estate integrates two parcels with the same noun, one on the left riverbank and the other on the right one.

The first, in Valdigem, harbors the ancestral house and the 18^th century chapel. It is there that the joint winemaking of all crops is made, in a traditional wine cellar with granite presses, chestnut wood casks – and stainless steel tanks, to seize the virtues of modernity.

In the small and medium slope schistose soils, with southern and western exposure, grow the vineyards grafted with the typical vine varieties of the terroir: Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão and Sousão for the red; Malvasia Fina, Gouveio and Viosinho for the white. The restructuration of the vineyards, finely done, has saved some 50 to 120 old vines.

The production was divided between fortified and consumption wines, with the oenology provided by the capable hands of the team responsible for Quinta Vale D. Maria.

In the famous Vinhos de Portugal wine guide, 2016 edition, the renowned critic João Paulo Martins lists four wines that have attracted his attention: the 2014 white Quinta das Brôlhas, a blend of Malvasia, Gouveio and Viosinho that presents itself “well in the nose, with citric fruit and some dry vegetable hints… the acidity is lively and gives freshness… the wine has the right profile to be served with meals”; the 2013 red is referred as “fine in the wooden hints with ripe but well composed fruit, all very promising” in a “refined ensemble”.

The 2010 and 2013 Reserva reds stand out. The first has “an aroma composed by time, rounded in the edges”, with the fruit “showing good dialogue with the vegetable hints”. It is a wine that displays “good gastronomical sense” and will be “a success at the table”. The 2013 Reserva, writes João Paulo Martins, is a wine “full of character and tenacity… Very well organized in the mouth”, with an “elegant” profile, meant to be kept.

In recent years the wines Quinta das Brôlhas have been gathering awards in national and international contests: one Silver Medal in Expovinis, two Gold medals from Instituto do Vinhos do Douro e do Porto and one Silver Medal in the 2012 Concours Mondiale de Bruxelles.

Among the cliffy terraces that embellish this landscape, consecrated UNESCO World Heritage, the Estate welcomes, in rehabilitated buildings, the wine tourism lovers. For those who stay in Brôlhas, it may be easy to forget the vicissitudes of life outside. But it is the wine itself that awakens us for it, for its blessings and its pleasures.

Best of Wine Tourism 2006 given to Quinta das Brôlhas by the network of the world great vineyards.