"IN THE CRADLE OF THE WINES OF THE ÉVORA REGION"

Quinta de São José de Peramanca is located five kilometres from Évora, on National Road 114. The large, traditional house, characterised by Baroque architecture, and the adjoining church of São José make it easy to identify. Covering 34 hectares, the Quinta's greatest assets are its manor house and vineyard.

The quinta's peculiar name, "Peramanca" (Pedra-Manca), means "oscillating, unsafe stone" and is explained by the existence in the region of large granite stones in oscillating equilibrium. Since Roman times and over the centuries, the neighbourhood to the west of Évora has been considered one of the most important regions for producing quality wine, and the area became known as the "Lands of Peramanca" due to the abundance of these oscillating stones.

At the end of the 19th century, the wines produced there even won several medals in international competitions. However, around this time, the scourge of phylloxera put an end to the cultivation of vines throughout most of the country.

These lands of Peramanca were no exception and the wine-growing area was reduced for some time to the terroir next to our Quinta. Today, the Pêra-Grave wines, produced by João Grave, are the last known fruits of this same terroir.

With its unique characteristics, the terroir of the Pêra-Grave wines is based on a mantle of granite that is between one and a half and two metres deep. At some points, the depth of the granite rock reaches around 200 metres, which allows the water to circulate here at a shallower level than in most vineyards. In fact, it is this condition that irrefutably explains the virtuosity of the history of the wines from these lands, even in times when irrigation systems were non-existent.