Menin Douro Estates was born out of a dream: to produce great Douro wines and place them around the world.
The precursors
The passion for Portugal and the Douro, on the part of Brazilian businessmen Rubens Menin and Cristiano Gomes goes back a long way. First almost as a second homeland, now as an ideal destination for a unique project that aims to strengthen the historic legacy of the Douro.
Rubens Menin, one of the greatest Brazilian entrepreneurs, with a vast portfolio of businesses, ranging from banking to the largest construction company in Latin America, and Cristiano Gomes, partner and entrepreneur with a career in the financial area, came together to fulfill their passion. And the Douro is just the beginning.
Terroir
“It was a long process of recovering centuries-old vineyards that were abandoned and with many failures.
We are replanting with rootstocks, reinforcing the sustainability of our terroirs and protecting the diversity of grape varieties that reflect the identity of the Douro. It would be much easier to rip everything out, but that is not what we want. We want to invest all efforts in the preservation of the old vines from the region”.
– Cristiano Gomes
It is at Quinta da Costa de Cima and Quinta do Sol that they found a special terroir where the Ceira meets the the Douro. Here the 42 hectares of vineyards are planted in terraces of unparalleled beauty.
The starting point is to invest in quality, growth and appreciation of the Douro’s heritage, never forgetting the important legacy they have in their hands.
In April 2021 Menin Douro Estates acquired the assets of Horta Osório Wines and couldn’t be happier with the challenge of maintaining a legacy as important as the one that was built over the years by the Horta Osório family.
The properties, in some of the best terroirs in the Douro, in a total of 55 hectares, of which 10 are of old vineyards, include Quinta do Pontão, located in the center of the village of Cumieira, and a winery with the most modern winemaking technologies, designed by architects Frederico Valsassina and João Horta Osório Charters Monteiro. Integrated within the landscape, the winery was designed based on the gravity-flow concept.
Wines and Olive Oil
The first Menin Douro Estates wines were released in 2021
The oenology of João Rosa Alves with consultancy by Tiago Alves de Sousa follows the philosophy that Menin Douro Estates defined for the project: producing top-of-range wines that reflect the DNA of this region and that best represent its terroir.
In the vineyard as in oenology, there is the same philosophy: sustainability, quality and long term. Menin wines will be a reflection of its terroir, complex and with character, full of finesse and great potential.
