Winery

The winery represents one of the crucial areas for the regeneration of the estate, producing first-class single-estate wines, created by the award-winning winemaker Susana Esteban. From its own 15 hectares of vineyards, come the hand-picked grapes which form the basis of limited bottlings, the remaining grapes carefully blended before being matured. The winery comprises a symmetrical vault that is home to two fermentation vats for grape-stomping, and seven concrete vats on each side, with capacity for around 80,000 litres of wine. Adjacent, you can find a room with French oak barrels and clay amphorae, as well as venues for tastings. Alongside the pool, the winery is one of the estate’s locations where Souto de Moura’s architecture is most visible.

Recognising the area’s outstanding terroir more than a century ago, São Lourenço do Barrocal’s founder helped to foster the region’s reputation for winemaking, today one of the most notable in Portugal, by planting many thousands of vines in the 19th century.

At the heart of the Alentejo winemaking region and influenced by the Alqueva lake, the climate in the estate alternates between hot, dry days, and cool and humid nights, which facilitates the gradual maturation process of the grapes. Vines rooted in clay, granite and schist soils, with low levels of groundwater, and cared for only by natural production methods – such as the planting of lupine and fava beans between the vineyard’s rows or the manual pruning of bunches to rebalance the plant – originate quality grapes, extremely aromatic, each year of harvest reflecting a unique terroir.