This estate that was known in the past as “Quinta do Casal de Celeirós”, has an area of 15 hectares surrounded by a schist wall.
It’s an historic Quinta with references in the end of the XIX century that considered it as a “Model Property”. It’s also mentioned historically as not having suffered the terrible plague of phylloxera. In 1877 Henry Vizetelly, author of “Facts about Port and Madeira” (Ward, Lock, 1880) drew the attention to the fact that this property hadn’t been affected by the plague and in 1886 the Viscount of Vilarinho de São Romão names it as a truly Model Property and writes: “it’s the only example that we know of a vineyard that didn’t suffer with the plague of phylloxera”.
It’s also historically recognized as being the first property in the Douro to admit women to tread grapes. Henry Vizetelly wrote: "The young women skillfully gathered their garments up around them. When all was duly adjusted they sprang into the lagar, and, delighted with their task, danced for a time among the grapes with the frenzy if not the grace of a troop of wild Bacchanals. The sight was certainly amusing, although the proceeding was, perhaps, not exactly a decorous one."
The average altitude is 500m and its vineyards have an Eastern exposure. The average age of the vines is 25 years.
Quinta dos Muros has been in the Mansilha family since the end of the XIX century. Francisco d’Araújo Mansilha who inherited Muros through his wedding made the following comment: “Those who know how to look after the wines from Muros will be convinced by analysis and comparisons that there are no better in our country.”
He started a book in 1905 with the title: “How to produce wines and their treatments” (the last notes written by a shaky hand are from 1925). The book was finished by his nephew-grandson Manuel Mansilha in 1962. In the book he wrote about the problems of the vine and the wine and their treatments, revealing also precious secrets on how to make good Port Wine. Secrets that should be kept within the family: "This book must be always kept as a family secret, as if strangers know about its content the family will lose great advantage, that the author gained from practical science…”
The property was later inherited by Manuel Mansilha (nephew-grandson of Francisco Mansilha and grandfather of the actual owners).
At this magnificent estate with all its vineyards planted in socalcos (traditional walled terraces) and patamares (modern terraces), we’ve always produced Port wine that until 1974 was sold in bulk. Today is the source of our best grapes and it's the birthplace of the iconic wine Quinta dos Muros M7 Unique Vineyard Parcel. We only have red varieties planted in a total area of vineyards of 30 hectares. The altitude ranges from 200m to 500m and the exposition is South, West and Northwest.
From the family house we have one of the greatest views of the Douro, and we can see several other historic and well known properties and vineyards.
This beautiful property follows the panoramic road from the village of Pinhão to Sabrosa, next to Celeirós. With an altitude of 550 meters and slopes facing East and South, the main area (77%) is occupied by white grape varieties, being the remaining area planted with Touriga Nacional in terraces.
Today we have the biggest single parcel of Viosinho in the Douro (and maybe in Portugal) with 7,2 hectares planted.
The first harvest we did at Confradeiro was in 1991. In 2006 we totally replanted this property.
Quinta da Abelheira is located in the plateau south of the village of Favaios. It's in the family hands since 1978, and its grapes were vinified in the traditional "lagares" of Quinta dos Muros until 1994, when we finally started working at the new Quinta do Portal winery.
It has 17 hectares under vineyards where Moscatel is the most plantes variety. At Abelheira we also have our experimental plots with some grapes not so common to the region. The altitude averages 550m with a maximum of 600m.
Quinta da Manuela is located in the East slope of the Pinhão river valley. It's a neighbour property from Quinta dos Muros. As kids we used to meet its "caseiros" walking by Muros to get their supplies in town.
We started by renting Manuela in 2009, and restructured the whole vineyard. Finally in 2017 we acquired it.
The total area is 17 hectares, of which 11 of vineyards. In the beginning we only planted Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz, but in 2019 we planted a field blend using the same genetic material of the M7 parcel of Quinta dos Muros.
The whole property is classified with the letter "A", the best vineyard classification of the Douro Demarcated Region. The vineyard exposition is Northwest and the altitude varies between 190 and 370 meters. It has a river front of 900 meters.
