The Quinta do Sol winery was built by our family in 1996. It is actually two wineries on the same site: a sizeable Port production facility and a DOC Douro winery.
The Port winery is equipped with stainless steel autovinificators which produce ports from grapes bought in from farmers in the surrounding Baixo Corgo and Cima Corgo subregions.
Non-reserve wines are also vinified in the main body of the Sol winery in state-of-the-art, dedicated dry wine vinification equipment. The grape bunches are submitted to a one stage sorting process which ensures that unwanted berries do not reach the fermentation vats. Peristaltic pumps are employed to convey the juice and skins gently, thus safeguarding fruit quality.
The DOC winery is laid out in two sections; one for the vinification of higher volume wines and the other — called Adega dos Reservas— exclusively dedicated to the production of premium and super-premium wines.
At the Adega dos Reservas, the bunches of grapes — entirely sourced from Symington properties — arrive in small, shallow containers and undergo initial hand sorting on triage conveyors where damaged, substandard or unevenly ripe clusters are rejected. The selected bunches are then destemmed in a sophisticated pendulum swing destemmer which selectively detaches only healthy berries from the stems, keeping them whole and leaving on the stems any unwanted dehydrated, raisined fruit. Berries which make the cut are then subjected to a second round of screening; this time being machine sorted so that any remaining dehydrated or undesirable material is automatically removed. The twice sorted berries are then gravity fed (not pumped) into the fermentation vats after being gently crushed through rollers immediately before entering the vats, which pre-empts any exposure to oxidation. Fermentations are individually and closely monitored so that the wines’ full potential may be fulfilled.
