Counted in in the first world wine region officially laid out in 1757, by order of the Marquis de Pombal, Portugal’s Prime Minister in 1756, Quinta do Espinho is now owned by brothers Joaquim and Alberto, from Tabuaço’s Macedo Pinto family.
The Macedo Pinto family relationship with “shipping wine”, as Port Wines were called, dates from at least the seventeenth century. Their farms extended along the banks of the river Távora, from Douro to Tabuaço. They were said to be the “best and most extensive areas of vineyard in Portugal; few can be compared abroad” (1).
Over generations, particularly esteemed is the memory of Grandfather Victor de Macedo Pinto. Born in 1869, he was a physician, a proprietor and a distinguished Republican. He was President of the Municipality of Tabuaço, deputy to the National Constituent Assembly of 1911, President of the Chamber of Deputies and Minister of the Navy. And he played an import role as one of the most energetic champions for the improvement of social and cultural benefits intrinsically linked to the economic activities of Port wine production in the Douro valley.
He signed the Manifesto of November 1890 (in the aftermath of the English Ultimatum (2), and leading the Douro Paladinos (champions) of the Alto Douro movement (1910) and the regional movement of protection of Porto and Douro denomination. He was also the first to sustain the need to regulate Douro table wines.
(1) PINHO LEAL, Augusto Soares d’Azevedo Barbosa de, Ancient and Modern Portugal, Lisbon, Livraria Editora Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, 2006 [1873], volume 9, pp. 466-475
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890_British_Ultimatum
