About Us
Ramozeiros is a 21 hectare traditional family estate, located in Vacalar, Armamar, in the Douro Valley, in the north of Portugal. Ramozeiros housing and cellar facilities stand beautifully on the top of a hill, among other hills and valleys, around which you can enjoy the monumental scenery of the Douro Valley, with the river not far away from it.
Even before anyone tells you anything about Ramozeiros, the old vineyards and the stones of the ancient lagares will tell you about their age (1789) and will also point out to a laborious and resilient past. We know that our predecessors, and we have learned it from their own voices, carried out an amazing job of viticulture and vinification and that for a very long time, for some generations, they used to sell their grapes and wines to a few Porto companies.
Then, in 1994, after the purchase of the property, 2/3 of the vineyards were reconverted in patamares and a new approach both in the vineyards and the cellar began, monitored by qualified professionals, bringing together the traditional procedures of the granite stone lagares and the adequate advanced technologies. And it must also be said that the high quality of the grapes on the one hand and the almost genetically inherited love and passion for wine, on the other, encouraged the change into a more extensive project of growing vines, vinifying our own grapes and trading our own wines.
Most of our land area is devoted to the vineyards but there are also olive, almond, orange and lemon trees, peach and pear trees, fig, damson and cherry trees, the kitchen-gardens etc… and bearing in mind a project of sustainable farming and of the defense of the endogenous surrounding biodiversity, we try to develop our intervention in the most environmentally friendly way, aiming at producing very genuine wines that may show the true character of the Douro Valley native grape varieties. Therefore our actions are set on an ethical protocol of love and responsibility for the soil, the vineyards, the people and the nature as a whole.
The following values are part of our philosophy of action:
| » honouring the past of the estate and the Douro Valley region, which we love. |
| » protecting Ramozeiros’s natural, material and immaterial legacy |
| » managing a sustainable viticulture and vinification project, based on competence, accuracy and quality |
| » safeguarding the character and particular identity of the region and its wines |
| » living and working with responsibility and respect, authenticity and simplicity, joy and friendship |
And consequently we wish to work the best we can and thus promote the confidence and satisfaction in our clients.
These are us. We were born in a rural place in Porto district, in the Coastal Douro area. Our parents and grandparents had their bodies and souls strongly connected with the soil of their lands. What about us? What about the children we were by then? Since our early childhood we had a close nearness with those fields, quite often like witnesses but also lots of times like small apprentices of the family jobs, be it the sowing of corn, the growing of vines or the planting of vegetables, etc… Taking part, for an example, in small tasks related to the harvest of the grapes was such a joy for us, treading with our own feet a few bunches of grapes in a wooden container would be a big party! Helping grandma with the sieving of flour before baking bread in a wood oven was another treat but listening to the squeals of the pig on the day of its killing was hell for our ears and souls!... Yes, self-sufficiency was not a word for us… it was always a practical issue day after day.