Quinta de Cidro Rufete
⏳ Drinking Window
2022 - 2026
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
roasted duck, creamy mushroom risotto, grilled pork chops
✨ Technical Specifications
Quinta de Cidro, located in the high-altitude plateau of São João da Pesqueira within the Douro valley, serves as the innovative playground for the historic Real Companhia Velha. Acquired in 1972, this estate broke traditional boundaries by planting non-traditional varieties alongside forgotten indigenous ones. Among these is Rufete, a grape more commonly associated with neighboring Beira Interior. Thriving at an elevation of nearly 600 meters, the cool nights and clay-silica soils allow this late-ripening variety to develop slowly, preserving its naturally high acidity and delicate, aromatic complexity. The resulting wine is celebrated for its light-bodied, elegant profile, showing bright red fruit and earthy undertones that challenge the traditional, heavy-extraction stereotype of Douro reds. It represents a masterful blend of historic Portuguese viticulture and forward-thinking clonal experimentation.
🍾 About the Producer
Established on September 10, 1756, by Royal Charter of King D. José I under the auspices of the Marquis of Pombal, Real Companhia Velha stands as Portugal's oldest continuously operating wine company. Entrusted originally with demarcating and regulating the Douro Valley, the company was acquired by the Silva Reis family in 1960. Today, under President Pedro Silva Reis and celebrated head winemaker Jorge Moreira, Real Companhia Velha oversees more than 550 hectares across historic quintas such as Das Carvalhas, De Cidro, Dos Aciprestes, and Do Casal da Granja. While famous for benchmark Port, the house pioneered fine Douro still whites, capitalizing on high-elevation schist and granite plateaus with wide diurnal shifts. Estate whites—most prominently the Quinta de Cidro mono-varietals and field blends spanning Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Alvarinho, and Sémillon (Boal)—rely on precision viticulture and parcel-specific vinification. These wines demonstrate remarkable tension, vibrant natural acidity, and an authentic, mineral-driven reflection of the rugged Douro landscape.
🍇 Grapes
Rufete
🍷 ABV
13.5%