When nineteen farms of the Douro’s best terroirs came together to share a brand, enology team and wine cellar, few would guess that this union would bring so many and delicious gains to the Portuguese winemaking market. After eighteen years, Lavradores de Feitoria is a stamp that holds some of the most noticeable wines of the Douro’s landscape.
The beginning of the millennium was an historical moment for the Douro.
Fifteen farm workers, owners of eighteen of some of the most envied terroirs of Douro’s banks, took on the mission of designing a conjoint project, sharing resources, techniques and ancestral understanding of the art of winemaking. Lavradores de Feitoria was then born, an associativism’s testimonial that, till this day, brings together 600 hectares of vineyards that provided the region with remarkable wines that are very elegant, well-balanced and with great potential of aging in the bottle, traces that are typical amongst the best wines produced in the Douro.
A wide range of traditional castes on the region add richness and diversity to the blends, favored by the multiplication of terroirs. Vines from a wide range of maturity, planted in distinct altitudes, take on different sun-light exposure in contrasting soils. All of this contributes to the fact that blends such as Alvarelhão, Tinta Amarela, Barroca, Franca, Roriz, Touriga Francesa and Touriga Nacional, that are some of the red wines, or Boal, Códega, Malvasia, Gouveio or Viosinho, to name some of the whites, can achieve with this wine producer a distinctive expressivity, that is manifested in the wines character and versatility.
Lavradores de Feitoria produces batches of wines that are distributed by a range of different brands. The opening wine gets the house’s name. Then rises the varieties of Gadiva, Cheda and Três Bagos, crafted through a rigorous assortment of grapes from the nineteen farms, to preserve the richness and complexity that are so characteristic of the big creations of the region. João Paulo Martins, in his vast Vinhos de Portugal (Wines from Portugal) guide, distinguishes from this vast portfolio, the Três Bagos Red Grande Escolha, that in its several editions, is always assessed extraordinarily, due to its refines, balance on the mouth, character and aging potential.
Terroir wines are also to be credited. Brands such as Meruge and Quinta das Aguadeiras, in which is explicit the individuality of a special wine batch. João Paulo Martins highlights amongst this wines the Merugo Red wine, for its burgundian features, a wine that is not very concentrated, an presents an irresistible dialogue between the fruit and the barrel, adding only that it’s “only intended for the fine and elegant wine enthusiasts. One of our preferred Douro’s”.
At Quinta da Costa das Aguaneiras, red wines are noted by opposing features of concentrated profiles, very macerated, with good structure nonetheless, good acidity, “cooperative” tannins and good balance.
Motivated by the quality of the vineyards of which is composed, Lavradores de Feitoria’s collection is in constant growth, embracing caste varieties of unconventional profiles or special editions, in agreement with the arising opportunities. With so many immensely talented wine producers, the challenge would be to not evolve. With this scenario, it is predictable that this endeavor of two decades, an irrefutable mark of the region’s History, will keep on surprising us through the coming decades, bringing great contentment to wine lovers.
