PRELUDE
PRELUDE
At Conceito we are time and distance. Time comes from the forties, when the family vineyards started. Distance is not shorter; the Douro Superior has always been far from everything. Modernity compressed it all.
Distances and time can be solved by simple solutions – roads’ access and proximity. We had the dream to bottle a mixture of our sun with our soil and we took that terroir all over the world. Love for our land; love for our work.
Suddenly our wines, the synthesis of our place and dedication, travelled the world and were poured in glasses and served in tables, everywhere. We travelled with our wines, wishing to return home. From each travel we brought a new dream and a new ambition. Sometimes a new friendship, other times a wine; a project in another Continent; a new teaching that combines with our land’s.
Distance is shorter today and time projects in the future. In every bottle we set aside we know it will be more in a year time, in five years, in ten years. Await ten years to caress the wait and calmly enjoy our conviction – a foot in the Douro, our heritage, pride and responsibility. Portugal in the world, we trace new sea routes and take our earth with us.
In a vortex, time and distance flattens out, leaving an emotion and a shiver. Conceito.
ESSENCE
When you taste a Conceito wine, you can taste its essence – our love for nature; respect for climate and soil’s characteristics and the ambition to do the best with what our land can produce.
The subtle flavours hide the wisdom of balancing experimentalism and tradition; respecting the old vines; trusting the longevity of the wines and looking for a refreshing profile that feels like drinking, not only tasting.
Our wines have soul because they are authentic, but also because they carry the consistency of a winemaking project which involves local communities, in a partnership with shepherds and farmers, stimulating natural and organic production in the region.
Over the years, our portfolio has grown into a diverse range of reds, whites, varietals from different origins, Ports and sparkling wines. Our core has remained: precision, sobriety, elegance, respect for nature and its cycles. Light but deep wines. Appealing but long lasting. Restrained; sober, yet, rewarding and sophisticated.
CHARACTER
Purity, elegance and authenticity are our motto. It is not an empty motto. It’s a life program, a will and a commitment to our land, our people, our clients and followers.
Purity means our wine starts in the vineyard, in the grapes, in which we use all our effort and know-how. It means commitment to our land and to the future. The legacy we build everyday when we choose not to use chemicals, to leave a clean ecological footprint, and when we trust in our terroir and preserve it in sustainable harmony.
Elegance is the definition of our place. It’s freshness offered by altitude, low intervention winemaking that builds a connection between the love to our vineyards and the pleasure we like to find in the glass, at the table. Integration, balance and smoothness are the refreshing imprints of our wines. The will to drink one more glass and enjoy the sophisticated delicacy of aromas, are the compass that guides all the work we do.
Authenticity represents our believe that striking wines can come out of this exceptional terroir, that surpass geographical and bureaucratic frontiers, and are visiting cards from our little corner in the Douro Valley to the whole world.
CHARACTER
Purity, elegance and authenticity are our motto. It is not an empty motto. It’s a life program, a will and a commitment to our land, our people, our clients and followers.
Purity means our wine starts in the vineyard, in the grapes, in which we use all our effort and know-how. It means commitment to our land and to the future. The legacy we build everyday when we choose not to use chemicals, to leave a clean ecological footprint, and when we trust in our terroir and preserve it in sustainable harmony.
Elegance is the definition of our place. It’s freshness offered by altitude, low intervention winemaking that builds a connection between the love to our vineyards and the pleasure we like to find in the glass, at the table. Integration, balance and smoothness are the refreshing imprints of our wines. The will to drink one more glass and enjoy the sophisticated delicacy of aromas, are the compass that guides all the work we do.
Authenticity represents our believe that striking wines can come out of this exceptional terroir, that surpass geographical and bureaucratic frontiers, and are visiting cards from our little corner in the Douro Valley to the whole world.
RITA MARQUES
Rita is the face of Conceito. Rita is the soul of Conceito. Rita was the bridge that allowed the family owned company, led by her mother Carla Ferreira, to combine History with the ambition to create news brands, such as Rita combines youth with wisdom and technical know-how with intuition.
Disappointed with Mechanical Engineering, Rita chose the earth and the wine route. Graduated in Oenology in Vila Real and Bordeaux, carefully chose her career, learning and working side by side with some of the most influential winemakers in the world, in some of the most fascinating terroirs in the world: Bordeaux, California, South Africa and New Zealand.
Returning to the Douro made Rita grow in a special way. From winemaker she became a leader. Rita’s engaging leadership allowed her to build a strong, ambitious and dynamic team with the goal to make wines that mirror her personality. Better yet: the way her personality interprets places. The result is unique wines: personal, passionate, fresh. Visions that transport raw land to the table, to the meal and to social interactions.
TEAM
Brothers. Carla’s uncle and father, respectively. Entrepreneur and visionary, they were in the origin of the agricultural company that became Conceito Wines, at which time, only produced grapes to the Port Wine houses. José had intense public activity, he was the Mayor of Foz-Côa, founded the Cooperative Winery of Teja and created the “Super-Douro”, a gigantic facility that belongs to five cooperatives from the region and provides wine production, processing and bottling related services. Luís shares his time between Coimbra and Cedovim, attends harvesting passionately, with a well-disguised shred of pride in the company’s course.
