Expressive wines

from Quinta do Roncão
in the Douro Valley

↓ Learn more

Where it began

A once-in-a-generation opportunity to purchase one of the great vineyards of the Douro Valley led to the creation of Cavea Wine Company in 2022. Located in Quinta do Roncão (about 10-15 minutes East of the town of Pinhão in Cima Corga), this site has been known for centuries as one of the best sites for port wines. In the 21st century our vision is to produce both the best ports and the best dry red wines anywhere.

We’ve undertaken a journey to leverage the incredible quality of Cavea’s vineyards and to couple them with best-in-class facilities, winemaking processes, viticulture techniques, and personnel to make that happen. 

Incredible wines have been produced at Cavea’s vineyards and wineries for hundreds of years, and the best is still to come.

Our Process

Wine comes from grapes, and you can’t make great wine from merely good grapes.  As such, our wines begin with obsessive control of our vineyards and our farming practices. 

Our sites are notoriously difficult to farm but we think anyone trying our wines will understand why we do it. 

We try to create wines that truly express the unique character of our vineyard blocks and don’t attempt to shoehorn our grapes into a particular style to suit a critic or an expectation. 

Our most recent winemaking facility came online in 1961 but we plan to break ground on our newest, state-of-the-art, facility in 2025.

Our Team

David is an American who fell in love with the wines of the Douro Valley. Immediately upon seeing the vineyards of Cavea, he knew he had found his spiritual home. He brings Napa Valley production and hospitality know-how to the project along with a passion to always strive to achieve the best. He has studied engineering at Virginia Tech, business at Georgetown, and viticulture and enology at the University of California, Davis. He lives in Kansas City with his wife, two children, and three large dogs.
David Sylvester
David Sylvester
José has a deep connection to the Douro. His father worked as a caretaker at Quinta da Faísca, and José followed in his footsteps from an early age. Before joining Cavea Wine Company, José worked for Grupo Visabeira, Sociedade Agrícola and Quinta da Borralheira.
José GuedesWinegrower
José Guedes
Hugo is a winemaker who truly understands the relationship between farming and winemaking. In fact, his PhD (from University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro) is in viticulture and not enology. Hugo's background has been primarily in making port wines for some of the top port houses, however Cavea allows him the freedom to truly express himself as a winemaker.
Hugo Oliveira SilvaWinemaker
Hugo Oliveira Silva
José Carlos is in charge of all viticultural practices at Cavea. His philosophy at Cavea is that proper planning and meticulous attention to detail early in a cycle can help produce superior grapes with limited or minimal vineyard interventions. He has worked exclusively in the Douro his entire career and has an amazing understanding of how to extract the best from our unique terroir.
José Carlos OliveiraViticulturist
José Carlos Oliveira
Isaac is a brilliant young winemaker who brings experience from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Australia, Chile - and of course Portugal and the Douro - to Cavea. After bouncing around between hemispheres twice a year Isaac was finally ready to find a permanent home, and we couldn't be happier that he chose to do it with Cavea. Isaac has a chemical engineering degree from the University of Porto and a degree in viticulture and enology from Bordeaux Sciences Agro.
Isaac CampeloAssistant Winemaker
Isaac Campelo
Henrique started with Cavea less than 12 hours after defending his master's thesis on partial rootzone drying implementation in a commercial Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard. Born and raised in the Douro Valley but with experience all over the world - including a year in California working at Gallo in precision viticulture research - he has a unique understanding of how to balance the best of old-world Douro viticulture with the latest in modern technology and understanding. He has an bachelor's degree in Biology and a master's in Agronomic Engineering, both from the University of Porto.
Henrique PereiraWinegrower
Henrique Pereira

Where to find us

Thank you for visiting our website and taking interest to learn more about our heritage.

You can contact us via email or via our social platforms:

Instagram Facebook-f

Cavea

Cavea Vineyards

Legal address

Email

  • contact@cavea.pt