Each block of vineyard is handpicked at the optimum level of maturity to preserve the freshness of the fruit and the right sugar-acid balance. Given that the Touriga Franca takes longer to ripen than the Touriga Nacional, our harvest typically lasts between three and four weeks while we assess the maturity of each vineyard block.

The grape bunches arrive at the winery in small boxes which are immediately placed into one of our three temperature-controlled rooms until they reach 15 degrees.

The grape bunches pass through a two-stage screening and selection process. First, they are hand sorted on a triage conveyor where any damaged or unevenly ripe clusters are rejected.

The chosen bunches are then destemmed in a sophisticated pendulum swing destemmer which selectively detaches only healthy berries from the stems, keeping them whole and leaving any unwanted, raisined fruit on the stems. The remaining berries are then machine-sorted using a horizontal blade of compressed air that eliminates any dehydrated berries or other unwanted material.

The twice-sorted berries are then gravity-fed through rollers to be gently crushed. Each of our vats has a capacity of just 8,000kg of grapes, which allows a very precise selection of grape variety, age of vine, and exposure on the slopes.

The new winery at Quinta de Roriz, inaugurated for the 2021 harvest, has specially designed ‘reverse conical’ stainless steel vats. This creates a larger surface area of contact between the juice and the cap and, at run off, a slight compression of the cap which is less aggressive than a press.

The alcoholic fermentation is followed by a long maceration of up to 20 days to allow the tannins to become softer and rounder. The malolactic fermentation takes place in vats or in barrels depending on the length of the maceration.