Douro - the quinta

The Portuguese word quinta means country- or wine-estate, and is also used in Douro, as everywhere else in the country. The definition of a quinta ranges from a large summerhouse to stately country manor houses with various outbuildings. The area of a quinta can range from a few hectares to several hundred hectares. However, it is rarely all planted with vines; there are often also found citrus trees, almonds and olives. Some old vineyards also lie neglected - mostly since the phylloxera catastrophe stroke.

On many of the around 84,000 vineyards in the Douro valley, produce approximately 30,000 of the registered winegrowers, only table wine and not port wines. Those who produce port wine often sell either the grapes, must or finished port to the cooperatives and shipper.

However, some wineries have vineyards that produce excellent port. These quintas, whose wines are also marketed as single quinta vintages, are comparable to the great chateaux in Bordeaux and their cru wines. Almost every of these quintas have long-term contracts with one of the major port wine houses, or have in the meantime been bought by them.
Such a quinta like those, does mostly consists of at least three buildings or has several corridors in the building:

The Adega (Portuguese: wine cellar) with the Lagars, in which the grapes are crushed and fermented until they are stopped by the addition of wine distillate.
The Armazém (Portuguese: warehouse), which is usually lower than the adega and contains the wine barrels.
The living area, which is often located above the Armazém, to keep it as cool as possible.

Other buildings or parts of buildings can be accommodation for seasonal workers and visitors. Often there are also stables and other agricultural buildings.

Douro DOC wines  Port