Quinta do Crasto, SA is a Portuguese company that produces Douro and Port wines, based in Gouvinhas, Sabrosa municipality, Northern Portugal. Located in the heart of the Douro Valley, the oldest regulated wine region in the world and also classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001, Quinta do Crasto enjoys exceptional conditions for the production of wines and olive oils of the highest quality.

Quinta do Crasto, SA is a Portuguese company that produces Douro and Port wines, based in Gouvinhas, Sabrosa municipality, Northern Portugal. Located in the heart of the Douro Valley, the oldest regulated wine region in the world and also classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001, Quinta do Crasto enjoys exceptional conditions for the production of wines and olive oils of the highest quality.

The Maria Teresa Vineyard, named in honor of the first granddaughter of Constantino de Almeida (founder of Quinta do Crasto), is a century-old vineyard and one of the oldest on the estate. Located on the eastern slope of Quinta do Crasto, with excellent sun exposure and planted on terraces along the Douro River at extremely low levels, the Maria Teresa Vineyard occupies an area of ​​4.7 hectares, impressing with its beauty and, above all, its unique characteristics as an old vine.

For over 100 years, wine producers in the Douro Valley planted a little of everything among the available grape varieties, since the ultimate goal was to produce Port wine, and this fortified wine had the special characteristic of being the result of a mixture of various grape varieties. The end result was therefore a vineyard where the planting of grape varieties had been random and diverse, and in which it was possible to find a large number of different varieties.

In 2013, given the advanced age of the Maria Teresa Vineyard, Quinta do Crasto began genetic mapping of each grape variety planted there, with the aim of replacing dead vines with genetically identical varieties, thus perpetuating the "terroir" and "field blend" of this unique vineyard. The PatGen Vineyards project, as it is called, and developed in partnership with the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), aims to identify all the grape varieties that are part of the Maria Teresa Vineyard, and, to date, 54 different varieties have already been identified, including four white grape varieties and one "unknown" red grape variety, that is, a variety with which it has not yet been possible to find any equivalence.

A 100-year-old vine in an old vineyard like Vinha Maria Teresa has a significantly lower production capacity and will never be able to produce the same quantity of grapes as a vine in a new vineyard. The roots of the Vinha Maria Teresa vines can reach tens of meters deep, penetrating the schistous soil in search of water and nutrients, which increases competition between each vine and helps improve the productive performance of each plant. Even so, the average annual production per vine in Vinha Maria Teresa is about 300 g of grapes.

Despite its low productivity, the winemaking team at Quinta do Crasto manages to achieve extremely high levels of concentration with the grapes from this vineyard, allowing them to produce world-class wines that are very complex and full of character, guaranteeing bottle aging for many years.

The quantity of grapes harvested annually from the Maria Teresa Vineyard is used to produce the Quinta do Crasto Reserva Vinhas Velhas Douro wine. In years of exceptional quality, the annual grape production of the Maria Teresa Vineyard is destined for the production of a "single-vineyard" wine that honors its name: the Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa Douro wine. In these special years, the Maria Teresa Vineyard produces between 2,000 and 8,000 bottles of Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa, depending on the exceptionality of each year. The maximum number of bottles of Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa Douro wine produced by Quinta do Crasto from the Maria Teresa Vineyard was 8,001 bottles in 2007.

Vineyards like the Maria Teresa vineyard are what make Douro wines so special and appreciated worldwide. This richness, this most unique part of the Douro vineyards, makes this emblematic heritage an inheritance for everyone that is important to protect and preserve for future generations.