A very special wine where experience, memory, and emotion are eternal
Words: Ilídia Pinto
The world of Portuguese wine is made up of stories of family, estates that pass from generation to generation, and homespun businesses where emotions run deep. And this celebration of emotions, experiences, and memory makes Legado a legacy wine from Sogrape, with only 10 vintages in very special years.
This wine is a prestige project of Fernando Guedes, son of the founder of Sogrape, the Portuguese sector’s largest company with a global presence — 1,600 hectares of vineyards in 12 wine-making regions from Portugal to Argentina, Spain to Chile, and as far away as New Zealand. A company that sells more than 150 bottles each minute, in the more than 120 markets around the world where it is present.
The more than 30 brands it produces include the legendary Barca Velha, as well as Mateus Rosé and the wines of Porto Ferreira and Sandeman. And, lest we forget, this very special Legado, a wine originating from the Caêdo estate in Ervedosa do Douro, where never-equalled pre-phylloxera terraces belonging to the most ancient demarcated region in all the world can still be found, “truly represents the Douro, in 8 optimum hectares of centennial grapevines, where the work of winegrowing is an expression of the audacity of Man, animal strength and harvesting by hand, and where step by step the most sublime balance is sought.”
The first vintage, from 2008, came on the market with a restricted release of just 804 bottles. In subsequent years, a minimum of 3,900 bottles were produced in 2013, and a maximum of 5,700 in 2010. Of the most recent vintage, from 2017, just 2,538 bottles were produced, some of which are still for sale in selected stores, with a price point of around 400 Euros.
Sogrape is these days run by Fernando da Cunha Guedes, son of Fernando Guedes, who says Legado “will always be synonymous with the sharing of stories, principles, and knowledge. For everything it represents, for the way it came to be, this is an emotionally profound wine, of which every edition is a homage to the memory of my father, and everything we learned thanks to him. We are here to stay, to continue this legacy, and all the others he passed on to us.”
