Symington buys first vineyard outside of the Douro

The Symington Family has acquired its first vineyard outside of the Douro with its purchase of a 207-hectare estate in the Alto Alentejo in southern Portugal.

The Symington’s new Alentejo estate in southern Portugal spreads across 207 hectares

The Symingtons are the leading vineyard owners in the Douro Valley, with over 1000 hectares of vineyards across 27 quintas, but this is the first time that the family has first time that the family has chosen to venture outside of the Douro to produce a wine.

The family has apparently been searching for a vineyard in the Alentejo region for some time and was drawn to this site by its soils, the area’s temperate climate and the “rapidly increasing quality” of the wines being made there.

“After 135 years in the Douro our family felt that the time was right to make wine in another great Portuguese region,” said Rupert Symington.

“We love the Alto Alentejo and especially the location of this vineyard. We plan to make some exciting and interesting wines here.”

The newly acquired property in Portalegre – one of the Alentejo’s smallest wine regions with just 841 hectares of highly fragmented vineyards – includes 43 hectares of vineyard located at an altitude of 490 to 550 meters within the São Mamede National Park, which rises to 1,025 meters and is the highest mountain range in the south of Portugal.

The vineyard’s free-draining soils are composed of a mix of schist and granite and benefit from water that flows from wooded uplands to the estate’s north-easterly boundary.

The estate, formally known as Altas Quintas, has been producing wines for many years, but the Symington family has chosen not to acquire any of the remaining stock and will embark on producing new wines from scratch.