Quinta da Roêda (Croft)

Co-fermentation before the tasting room

David Guimaraens sets the blend while the must is still changing, his work as Winemaker at Quinta da Roêda (Croft) in Pinhão tied to Croft through The Fladgate Partnership. Since 1991, he has been Technical Director and Head Winemaker there, overseeing winemaking and blending for Taylor Fladgate, Fonseca Guimaraens, Croft, and Delaforce. The discipline is one piece: vineyard selection, fermentation, fortification, ageing, and the final architecture of Port treated as a continuous method rather than a sequence of separate rooms. David Guimaraens trained at Roseworthy Agricultural College, then joined the Taylor Fladgate and Fonseca wine making teams from 1990. At Roêda, that background meets an estate of 80 hectares, with old vines, terraces, and the north bank of the Douro River doing part of the slow work before the cellar begins. His published language is precise. He speaks of local varieties recovered, of controlled blocks rather than mixed plantings, of co-fermentation because the varieties complement one another at that point, not later across a tasting-room bench.

Old vines on controlled blocks

The vineyard program around Quinta da Roêda rests on selection and block management. Guimaraens has said he actively plants 12 different grape varieties today in controlled blocks, a choice that gives the blend a clearer base before any cask or tasting decision enters the work. Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca sit within the estate's Douro focus, with fortified wine as the central language and still red wine also part of the range. The method stays conservative where inherited technique continues to give control. Guimaraens has described himself as very conservative with traditional foot treading in granite lagares, a cellar stance that values extraction, rhythm, and touch without turning tradition into theatre. Co-fermentation matters here because it fixes the conversation between varieties early. The blend begins in the fermenting mass, not as a correction after the fact.

The north bank room

The place itself gives the work a visible frame: terraced vineyards on the north bank of the Douro River, traditional Portuguese buildings, and a terrace that looks back across the slopes. The winery reads quietly, with the colour of the landscape doing more than any room dressing could. In harvest language, the setting is not backdrop; it is the station. Old vines carry their own limits, the terraces hold the ground in narrow lines, and the river keeps the estate oriented. Tastings and picnics happen here, but the more durable impression is agricultural: stone, vine, water, and a cellar practice built to respect the material coming down from the hill.

Age, colour, freshness, depth

Guimaraens's remit across the wider house explains why Roêda is not handled as an isolated address. His signature wines include Fonseca 1985, VVOP White, Croft Rosé Port, and Croft Vintage 2017, a span that asks for different forms of patience and different decisions about structure. At Quinta da Roêda, the thread is Croft, carried through old vines, co-fermentation, granite lagares, and the Douro terraces above Pinhão.