Casa Landeiro Wines

Casa Landeiro Wines was born very recently. Its history therefore appears to be very short and recent. However, this is not the case, as there are stories that began long before they began. Luiz Landeiro, a Brazilian civil engineer based in Windermere, Orlando (Florida, USA), began prospecting for land and properties in Portugal in 2016 with the dream of producing excellent wines in mind. (The explanation for the origin of this dream can be found in the Pre-History of Casa Landeiro Wines - to get there, just look below). In his search for the perfect terroir to develop excellent wines, Luiz Landeiro visited various options in the Douro, Galicia and the Alentejo. Finally, in 2023, he found what he thought was the best in Nisa. At the time, there were two options on the table. For some reason, which may be difficult to explain, something told him that Nisa was the best option. Today, Landeiro says that “it was the place” that attracted him. It was in Nisa that he felt everything made sense, it was in Tapada do Fental, with its incomparable late afternoon light and its vast, open and free landscape, that his intuition told him “this is it”.

On a more technical and less passionate level, Luiz Landeiro enlisted the help of The Wine Office consultancy team to establish the criteria that led to the choice of the property located in Nisa. The characteristics of the soil, the microclimate of the region between the Serra de S. Mamede and the River Tagus, the temperature range, the abundance of water and the tourist potential were all taken into account. After the technical visits, everyone agreed that this would be the ideal place to set up Casa Landeiro Wines. In October 2023, after one of these visits, the promissory contract of purchase and sale was signed with the former owners of the land. Casa Landeiro also reached an agreement with the former owners that, even before the definitive deed was signed, maintenance work would begin on the existing vineyard at the start of 2024, so as not to miss another harvest. In February 2024, the first pruning was carried out. Since then, all the care and treatment for the recovery and improvement of the existing vineyard has been carried out by the House. In May of the same year, AgroAnalítica carried out the first in-depth analysis of the soils that make up Tapada do Fental. A few weeks later, on June 6, 2024, the deed for the purchase of the land was signed. It then became official and definitive that Tapada do Fental would be the birthplace and headquarters of Casa Landeiro Wines. In the time that followed, and even before the first harvest, the Casa Landeiro team tried to fine-tune aspirations and expectations, meeting Luiz Landeiro's idea and desire for his wines. Profiles were identified, parameters were established, needs and demands were aligned, so as to leave clear ideas for oenology and allow future actions to be planned for viticulture.

Meanwhile, in the vineyards of Quinta do Fental, the grapes were growing. In mid-August, winemaker Mário Andrade determined, after analyzing the ripeness of the grapes, that the harvest should take place in mid-September. The destination of the harvest was also defined: part of it would be vinified in the Herdade de Vale Barqueiros winery and would give rise to the first wine under the Casa Landeiro label; the rest - most of it - would be sold to Adega de Portalegre. The first harvest of the new era in the vineyards of Tapada do Fental began on September 12th. The Aragonês plots and the old vines (field blends with a predominance of Alicante Bouschet) showed surprising quality. At the same time, heated debates were taking place within the team in an attempt to find a name that would dignify the wine that was beginning to be extracted. One conclusion was reached: Para Nisa. It couldn't be any other. The first edition had to be a well-deserved tribute to the land that had so warmly welcomed this new name in the wine world. The story of Casa Landeiro's first wine began. Made on the land, with what the land has given, in perfect harmony and respect for the land - a wine made for the land that saw it born. For Nisa.

Prehistory

When, in the distant year of 1881, José Landeiro disembarked from the steamboat at the port of Itapemirim, in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, he was far—very far—from knowing that this was the beginning of a long story. There are stories made of distances and quests, of journeys and adventures, that begin long before they actually start. That is the case with this one: the story of Casa Landeiro.

It was thanks to a curiosity about his ancestors that Luiz Landeiro began his search for information about the family of his great-grandfather, José Landeiro. All Luiz knew was that the family originated from Galicia and the North of Portugal. And it was while searching in that region—more precisely in the area of Barcelos—that Luiz came across a curious label on a bottle of wine: Quinta do Landeiro. Intrigued, he tried to find out whether the producer was a relative, even a distant one. The quest bore no fruit, the investigation was inconclusive, but the discovery planted a seed.

Passionate—like his wife, Graziela—about the world of wine for many years, Luiz Landeiro found in that accidental discovery the spark that ignited his desire to produce wine in Portugal. For Landeiro, fulfilling that ambition is a way to reclaim the ties that bind him to the family and the ancestors who, 150 years ago, left the Iberian Peninsula and set off for Brazil in search of a better life.

The search for land to make this dream a reality led him to Nisa, where he found Tapada do Fental—around 30 hectares of rich and diverse terroir, with extremely generous sun exposure. Comprising 14 hectares of vineyards, Tapada do Fental was the perfect place for Luiz Landeiro to reconnect with his family's past through wine.

HISTORY