FAMILIA ROSA SANTOS
The family’s historical relationship with wine production is closely linked to Quinta de Valverde, in Caldas da Rainha. Acquired by the current generation’s grandfather, Frederico Eduardo Rosa Santos, from his mother-in-law (the great-grandmother Rosinda Mayer Caldas Botelho Moniz), it has remained in the family for over 400 years.
Around 1620, Cristóvão Botelho Sequeira, a native of Seixal, settled in Óbidos as Monteiro-Mor from the same village and received land for services to the Kingdom. His son, Belchior Botelho Sequeira, inherits his father's properties and, by Alvará Real, is named 1st Morgado de Valverde. With it, the farm's agricultural activities were developed and consolidated, namely the production of wines.
The Morgadio, transmitted from generation to generation, through the first-born male, finds its zing after seven generations. In the 2nd half of the 19th century, under the management of Gertrudes Magna Romeyro da Fonseca Botelho and her son Francisco Botelho Moniz de Sequeira, it reached a production of around 1,000,000 liters of wine, essentially for export. Some specimens from this period remain at rest in the wine cellar on the farm.
Displaced in regional terms to the Alentejo, but nurtured by a wine tradition that celebrates 4 centuries of age, this generation, made up of Jorge Botelho Rosa Santos, Maria da Luz Granate Rosa Santos and their children Frederico, Ricardo, Jorge and Vasco, intends to honor the memory of its patriarchs with a wine named after its own family.