Team Quinta do Espinho

TEAM

Our wines are made by people, for people.

After more than thirty years of investment and work, we have consolidated a sustainable project and an exclusively family activity that is financially sound. We benefit from the lessons of the past and learn to walk on our own. We guarantee continuity by passing the testimony to the next generation, because we know that these projects mature throughout decades.

We learn by innovating, keeping up with everything that surrounds us. Because quality cannot be stated, it is conquered.

JOAQUIM DE MACEDO PINTO PERES VENTURA

CEO

Offspring of northern traditional families with strong Douro roots, Joaquim was born in Oporto in 1940 and lived there until he was 10 years old. In 1950, he went to live in Lisbon with his mother Noémi.

He married Maria Helena and had three children, Patricia and the twins João and Pedro.

He graduated in Informatics and then took a specialisation course in the USA in system engineering. His professional activity was developed in Banking for 30 years, in the area of organization and systems. In 1985, he founded the Commerce and Industry Bank, today Santander Bank, where we worked as Executive Administrator until 1995.

Joaquim travelled a great deal, developed several national and international projects of high quality and requirement, but this one was probably his best and most passionate project.

His last thirty years were of great dedication and courage, which show all his love for us, for his grandfather Victor and for the land!

He engaged his sons Pedro and Patricia and gathered the whole family on behalf of a common cause. Today they work as a true team!

PEDRO ALMEIDA PERES

Sales

Pedro was born in Lisbon in 1971 and got his degree in History, in 1999.
A true sportsman, he practiced football, rugby, tennis, swimming and surf. Whenever he has the opportunity, he travels looking for new places, new people and new cultures. An enthusiast for a good match and music, he soon fell in love with Douro.
He followed his father closely, learnt his organization methods and was well integrated in the business context. He sold the first bottles of Quinta do Espinho.
A person of high spirits, a good company and a good friend, he is a caring and dedicated father to his son José Pedro.

PATRÍCIA ALMEIDA PERES

Marketing

Patricia was born in 1969 and has a degree in Business Communication.
In 1996 she got married, left Lisbon and went to live in Alentejo where she had two daughters, Rita and Joana.
She dedicated herself to family, always aware of her daughters’ education.
From 1995 to 2007, she worked as pedagogical director at a technical-professional school and continued to orient youngsters between 10 and 16 years old until 2015.
In 2015 she returned to Lisbon to help her father develop a new stage of the wine project he led.
Passionate for life, she founds her true inspiration in nature.

JEAN-HUGUES GROS

Winemaker

Jean-Hugues Gros was born in Paris in 1967. The grandchild of an oenologist, he found his vocation after completing his degree in Oenology in 1992, in Dijon, Burgundy.

In 1993, he took an internship at Sandeman, where, for the first time, he had contact with the Douro region. In the following years, he went to Morocco, California, Bordeaux and Champagne, and in 1999 he returned to Douro to work as oenologist at Quinta de Nossa Senhora do Convento.

In that region, he found the wine potential that allowed him to develop several high quality wines.

From 2000, he followed Quinta do Espinho’s wine project development. In 2005 and as the Quinta’s oenologist, he made the first wines.

A professional of excellence, J-H, who once wanted to be a pilot, is acknowledged today across borders.