Old World

Wine Regions of Portugal - Photo from http://www.winesofportugal.com/us/ Growing up in a small "aldeia" in Portugal, everyone made their own wine. When harvest season came, neighbors would help each other with the picking of the fruit. The grapes would be dumped into large stone or concrete tanks called "lagares" and then the men would get in and step on the grapes to crush them. When I first started making wine for myself here, I would still get into my open top tank and step on the grapes. Wine has been made in the region that is now Portugal for thousands of years, making it one of the oldest wine producing areas in the world. Portugal was the first country to develop an appellation system, beating out France by close to 200 years. When we talked about starting a winery in Virginia, we also wanted to bring in a bit of my heritage. That is how our motto was born:

Where the New World meets the Old World...

In addition to the Brent Manor Vineyards wines - The New World - we are also bringing in some of our favorite Portuguese wines - The Old World. Portugal's wine regions produce many different styles of wine. Even though Portugal is mainly known for Vinho do Porto and Vinho Verde its diversity of native varietals along with its varied soil and climate have combined to produce distinctive wines from every part of the small country.