Ferreira

Ferreira
Douro | Portugal

Known since 1751 and established by a wine-growing family of the same name from the Douro, FERREIRA is the only Port company founded by a family of Douro winegrowers. The family patriarch – already the owner of vineyards subsequently included in the Douro Demarcated Region – started his commercial activity in the mid-18th century. However, the company’s foundations for the future would stem from the actions of his grandsons, José Bernardo and António Bernardo, when they added considerably to the land they had inherited. The marriage between his descendants, the cousins António Bernardo and Antónia Adelaide, would consolidate a unique heritage in the following generation and mark FERREIRA’s future in an indelible way. Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira became a widow at the age of 33 and took charge of the company’s business, which she consolidated and increased thanks to her enterprising spirit and charisma, still a reference today on how to “do well in Portugal”. With an exceptional energy and a commercial acumen unrivalled in the Portuguese society of her time of which no other instance is known, she was able, in spite of the political troubles of the day, to give a great thrust to wine-growing in the Douro, setting up estates that are famous to this day, planting vineyards, building modern wine centres, opening up roads and paths in virtually desert areas, developing viticulture and oenology methods and making high-quality wines. At the same time she undertook remarkable social works and financed the building of hospitals, day-nurseries and schools, to such an extent that her memory is revered to this day.