Pêra Manca White 2020 Magnum 1.5L

According to tradition, the name of Pêra-Manca derives from the toponymic “stone lame” or “oscillating stone” – a granite formation of rounded blocks, unbalanced on firm rock.

History associates this name with the friars of the Convent of Espinheiro, in Évora, who owned, in the 15th and 16th centuries, vineyards located in a place with many loose granite stones, which swayed.

Its wines would be very famous at the time, to the point that Pedro Álvares Cabral took some barrels on the expedition to discover Brazil.
This would be the wine, shared with the indigenous people, that Pero Vaz de Caminha talks about in one of his letters.

The story goes that the tradition of Pêra-Manca wine dates back to the Middle Ages. The story also goes that around 1365, Our Lady appeared on top of a thorn bush to a shepherd. A few years later, an oratory was built in his honor and in 1458, given the growing importance of the place as a pilgrimage point, a church was built. The subsequent foundation of a Convent, which would house the Order of St. Jerome, followed. And, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Pêra-Manca vineyards were owned by the friars of the Convento do Espinheiro, in Évora.

In 1517, the friars of the Convento do Espinheiro were forced to lease these vineyards – as they were very expensive to manage – to Álvaro Azedo, squire of the King and his wife, Filipa Rodrigues. D. João II speaks of them, in a letter to the Évora City Council.

It was recovered in the 19th century by the prosperous Casa Soares, owned by Councilor José António d'Oliveira Soares, who transformed it into a sophisticated wine. However, following the phylloxera crisis, Casa Soares stopped producing Pêra-Manca. It was the heir of the extinct Casa Soares, José António de Oliveira Soares, who, in 1987, offered the name to the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation, which began to use as its label the adaptation of an advertising poster designed by Roque Gameiro in the 18th century and gains worldwide notoriety and recognition, now being considered one of the great national brands.