NV Cadao Fine White Port, Douro, Portugal

ABOUT THIS WINE

Cadão Douro is a White Port wine produced from autochthonous white grapes varieties such as Viozinho, Gouveio, Rabigato, and Codega do Larinho. The grapes were foot trodden in granitic Lagares and after a long maceration, the fermentation process took place at controlled temperatures. When the wine had achieved the sweetness desired the wine spirit (Aguardente), was added to stop the fermentation. The wine was then transferred to oak vats where it has stayed for an average period of 3-5 years old, prior to being bottled.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

The Mateus & Sequeira winery is inseparable from the life and work of its founder and administrator, Manuel Mateus. Born on 7 October 1960 in Soutelo do Douro, a Parish in the county of São João da Pesqueira, Manuel Mateus grew up in a family bound to agriculture and, especially, wine-growing.

From an early age he showed himself to be fearless and enterprising. At the age of 15 he went to Porto to help his father in a coffee shop business, but before long he had his own business in the field of machinery and the automotive sector. Five years later, already married to Alice Sequeira, born in the same parish and also a descendent of wine-growing families, he decided to return to his origins in the Douro. Whilst keeping on his business in the automotive sector, he started in agricultural plant hire, acquiring machinery and providing land excavation and vineyard planting services. Over time, Manuel Mateus had acquired new plots in addition to those the family already had, planting vineyards whenever the opportunity arose. At the same time, with vineyards and olive groves on several Douro properties, quality olive oil became another of his passions, and he eventually acquired four oil mills.

In 1997, Manuel Mateus took the plunge into the wine business. Settling on a production and management reference model, he created and developed Douro and Port wines in several of the region's wine cellars with great success, building the foundations of what would become Mateus & Sequeira, created in 2008. From then on, based on the accumulated knowledge and dynamics of his new company, Manuel Mateus devoted himself exclusively to the production of his own wines, bottled under his own brands, at the same time ushering in a new era.

Widely recognized in the Portuguese wine sector for his merits as a successful entrepreneur, Manuel Mateus is, above all, a duriense - one who knows like no other the region of his birth and the place where he has developed his business. The company he created, Mateus & Sequeira, is today the owner of 28 wine estates, with around 600 hectares of vineyard and 50 hectares of olive grove. Manuel Mateus also maintains close relationships with some 2000 winegrowers in the region, from whom he sources grapes. Mateus & Sequeira wines are produced wholly in the company's 3 wineries, located in Peso da Régua, São João da Pesqueira and Vila Nova de Foz Côa, and sold in more than 20 markets around the world. The father of two children, Cláudia and Pedro, now completely involved in the family business, and grandfather of four, Francisca, Afonso, Mateus Jr and Pedro Jr, Manuel Mateus today exhibits a unique legacy that will leave its indelible stamp on the history of the Douro, the oldest demarcated wine region in the world.