Chão de Areia 2019
Ramisco
Crunchy red fruit, sandy tannins and a salty finish that tastes of sea spray. The house red for every day.
19,50 € · 75 cl
Colares · Sintra · since 1953
Wine from sand-floor vineyards, between the hills and the Atlantic.
On the dunes of Colares, ungrafted vines bury themselves in metres of sand and grow low to the ground, sheltered from the wind by reed fences and stone walls. We are the third generation making wine this way — slowly, in mahogany vats, four kilometres from the sea.
- first harvest
- 1953
- of vines on sand
- 11 ha
- historic grapes
- 2
- bottles a year
- 18k
The Cellar
Seven wines. Two grapes. One singular soil.
Ramisco and Malvasia de Colares, from vines phylloxera never touched. Order online — we deliver across mainland Portugal in 2 to 4 working days.
Arriba 2022
Malvasia de Colares
Lemon, orange blossom and chalk. Fermented in steel and bottled early to keep its Atlantic tension.
16,00 € · 75 cl
Rosé das Dunas 2023
Ramisco
Direct press, onion-skin colour, redcurrant and clifftop herbs. Made for August afternoons.
14,50 € · 75 cl
Vale Alto Ramisco 2018
Ramisco de pé-franco
Four years in mahogany vats, as Colares tradition demands. Sour cherry, tobacco and iodine; tannins fine as linen.
34,00 € · 75 cl
Vale Alto Malvasia 2021
Malvasia de Colares
A year on fine lees in a used vat. Quince, salt and candle smoke; a white for long tables.
24,00 € · 75 cl
Reserva do Avô 2015
Ramisco · vinhas de 1953
From the vines grandfather Joaquim saved from speculation. Seven years between vat and bottle. 1,240 numbered bottles.
58,00 € · 75 cl
Névoa Licoroso 2017
Malvasia de Colares
Late harvest under September fog, fortified and forgotten for five winters in casks. Honey, orange peel and salt.
29,00 € · 37,5 cl
Free shipping from €60 · mainland Portugal
The Estate
Three generations against the sand, the wind and the hurry.
Quinta do Vale Alto sits at Azenhas do Mar, where the Sintra hills fall towards the cliffs. Eleven hectares of vines on sand, a winery built in 1953, and a stubbornness now in its third generation.
1953 — 1986
Joaquim Amaral
First generation
He bought the abandoned vineyard after the war and rebuilt the walls and reed fences by hand. He planted in open trenches in the sand, as had been done for two hundred years, and brought in the first harvest with neighbours from the village.
1987 — 2015
António Amaral
Second generation
In the years when Colares nearly vanished under construction, he refused every offer to sell the land. He replanted Ramisco when almost nobody wanted it and kept the mahogany vats working.
since 2016
Marta Amaral
Third generation · winemaker
She studied in Vila Real and came home to convert the estate to organic farming. She opened the winery to visitors, revived her grandfather’s fortified wine, and today bottles seven wines — all from sand-floor vineyards.
“In Colares you do not command the vineyard. You negotiate with it.”
Wine Tastings
Taste the wine where it is born.
On weekends we open the winery for guided tastings. Pick the tasting, the day and the hour — we confirm by email the same day.
Choose your tasting
Harvest Log
What each year gave us.
Cellar records, year by year: harvest dates, accumulated rainfall and production. In Colares, no two years are alike.
| Year | Harvest | Rain | Yield | Cellar note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 27 set — 12 out | 710 mm | 44 hl | Cool Atlantic year; whites of great tension. |
| 2022 | 05 set — 20 set | 470 mm | 31 hl | Extreme drought; low yields, very clean fruit. |
| 2023 | 18 set — 03 out | 655 mm | 42 hl | Balanced; Ramisco with the finest tannins. |
| 2024 | 23 set — 09 out | 690 mm | 45 hl | Long fogs; slow, aromatic ripening. |
| 2025 | 15 set — 30 set | 602 mm | 40 hl | Short, warm harvest; reds built to age. |