Rui Roboredo Madeira Family Estates

Rui Roboredo Madeira Family Estates

BEYRA – Origins, Family and Soul.

Our partnership with Rui and his wines stretches back 27 years.

When Raymond first met Rui he was a recently-graduated winemaker with family roots in the Douro and Beira interior. The first 'bottle' they tasted together was actually a fabulous Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) made in Rui's family’s state-of-the-art olive press, from their own olive groves in the Douro. It was to become Portugal’s finest and first Organic EVOO.

Rui's own project, Vinhos Douro Superior, combined making wines from his family’s vineyards as well as his own cuvées from the best grapes he could find in different Douro valley terroirs. He was one of a small cohort of inquisitive, pioneering winemakers exploring the diversity of terroirs and grapes of the Douro region. The wines were fruit-forward and brilliantly crafted, and achieved great commercial success at home and abroad. In the early 2000’s these were ground-breaking wines from Portugal. Raymond and Rui even made a red Douro together at that time, called The Crooked River which had some success in the UK.

Rui was instumental in establishing his family's winery, CARM, near Almendra, and continued to make these wines until 2009. One weekend, however, on a drive around to clear his mind of harvest pressures, he passes through the village of Vermiosa deep in the Beira Interior, where he’d done a harvest in a winery whilst studying, years before.

Nostalgia, landscape and serendipity happily conspired, and he bought the old winery building, along with the surrounding land, and so begin the BEYRA project.

This has taken him away from the Douro region, but the excitement of this frontier land, high plateau, abandoned vineyards, indigenous grapes, and potentially fresh energetic wines, makes him lay the foundation stones of what is now something more substantial and true.

Rui is a pioneer and champion of the Beira Interior, and his wines are recognised benchmarks for what is possible here. At BEYRA, he now owns some 70 hectares of vineyards, some very old, all organically managed, from which he crafts an array of wines that naturally express the terroir and its grape varieties.

“I make wines that are very much a reflection of my roots, experiences and the soul of these vineyards and grapes” - Rui Roboredo Madeira.

Quinta da PEDRA ESCRITA, Touça, Douro.

Rui inherited this small estate and abandoned vineyard in 2007 and set about regenerating it, planting more vineyards with some typical and some less typical grape varieties. It now consists of 21 different plots cultivated organically whilst embracing  environmentally-inclusive practices and the wider indigenous flora and fauna. It is now his family home in the Douro.

It sits on a breezy hill at 575m elevation, with magnificent views down the Murça valley to the Douro river below. The soils are granite and sand, and dry farmed. The wines reflect the struggles of the vine and a freshness from the location and grapes.

www.ruimadeira.pt