The Herdade do Rocim venture grew out of a dream of Catarina Vieira. Upon finishing her undergraduate degree in agronomy, she told her father that she wanted to have one hectare of vineyard in Alentejo to conduct some trials to see if she could grow from the earth that which she had learned.
The return of the family to the craft of agriculture and wine delighted her entrepreneur father, José Ribeiro Vieira. In the year 2000, the group of family companies, Movicortes, ended up buying a property in Alentejo that had belonged to the doctor Fernando Teixeira, and was abandoned after the unexpected death of the doctor.
Situated between Vidigueira and Cuba in Baixo Alentejo, Herdade do Rocim is much bigger than what Catarina Vieira initially envisioned. In total, there are 120 hectares of land, of which 70 are vineyards which were, for the most part, planted at the beginning of the century, with traditional Portuguese grape varieties such as: Touriga Nacional, Alicante Bouschet, Aragonez, Trincadeira (reds), Antão Vaz, Arinto e Alvarinho (whites), and some varieties not originally from Portugal, like Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.
At the same time, they maintained and restored the older vineyards, seeking at all costs to preserve their natural value, with a respect for biology and life, as José Ribeiro Vieira would say. The practice of viticulture with precision is a purposeful form of guidance to biological production: numerous field tests and trials using new pruning techniques, and a variety of systems of weeding and irrigation, all under close scrutiny.
The construction of the modern cellar, opened in 2007, closed the initial cycle of investments.
Meant to be a wine tourism project as well, the cellar includes spaces for cultural and leisure activities as it has a cafeteria and the capacity to serve meals to groups of up to 150 people.
Herdade do Rocim also has living areas, a warehouse of agricultural tools, an olive grove of 10 hectares, orange trees, and a garden of native shrubbery. And one small vegetable garden, seldom watered, from which produce with intense flavors is picked.
Originally from Leiria, the family also owns a vineyard of four hectares, in the village of Cortes, in the foothills of Serra de Aire, which was the birthplace of the wine Vale da Mata.
