THE FAMILY
It is in Douro that the Alves de Sousa family produces their wines, according to a family tradition of 5 generations.
Working only the grapes of the family vineyards (Quinta da Gaivosa, Vale da Raposa, Caldas, Estação, Aveleira and Oliveirinha), we developed a complete range of Douro wines of great character and quality.
Few are the places in the world that mirror as well as the Douro the admirable deeds that can come from the effort and dedication of Man. The weight of such a work falls upon us today. As such, a working group was convened with the scientific, technical training and commitment required to continuously pursue a single objective - the search for the best expression of the character of the vine in the form of a wine.
DOMINGOS ALVES DE SOUSA
PRODUCER
Domingos Alves de Sousa studied originally to become a civil engineer. But being the 4th Generation of a family of grape growers in the Douro, his engineering skills soon gave way to the call of the land. After some years dedicated to the production of Port wines for some of the main exporting houses, Domingos realized that Douro's unique vineyards and amazing diversity of terroirs could be expressed in new ways. He became one of the pioneers of the new generation of Douro wine producers that emerged in the early 1990s, inspiring many others to follow and to realize that Douro Valley can make great dry wines besides of great Ports.
Domingos won the "Producer of the Year" award presented in 1999 and again in 2006 by the most important Portuguese Wine Magazine (“Revista de Vinhos”), becoming the first in the history to receive twice the most prestigious distinction for Portuguese wine producers. In 2023 Domingos as won the Lifetime Achievement Award also by "Revista de Vinhos" in recognition of being a pioneer and a tireless spirit, devoting his life to Douro region and its wines.
TIAGO ALVES DE SOUSA
WINE MAKER
Bachelor in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Tiago Alves de Sousa was distinguished in 2003 with the Fundação Eng.º António de Almeida award and the Merit Scholarship from the Student Support Fund, awarded to the best Bachelor's student. After several stages of harvesting, in which he collaborated with renowned winemakers such as Manuel Vieira and Anselmo Mendes, complemented with some training courses in the field of Enology and Viticulture and a stint at the Viticulture Institute of the Catholic University of Piacenza (Italy) where he collaborated with the renowned Professors Mario Fregoni and Luigi Bavaresco, joined the team in 2002. For a few years, he combined his duties at Alves de Sousa with a PhD in Viticulture at the Department of Phytotechnics and Rural Engineering at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, which he would complete in 2011 with maximum classification. He is a University Professor and has several publications in the field of viticulture in international magazines and proceedings of scientific meetings, being frequently invited to lectures, master's classes and to be part of scientific work juries in Portugal and across borders. In the family's production of Douro and Porto wines, in addition to technical management, he is also responsible for several export markets.
PATRÍCIA ALVES DE SOUSA
FINANCIAL DIRECTOR
With a bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Porto, Patrícia Alves de Sousa embraced this profession until 2012. In 2007, as a complement to her professional activity, she began her collaboration with the company Jerónimo Martins, currently remaining in the technical direction of several parapharmacies in the group. In January 2013, he gave in to the call of the Douro and his family and, similar to the path taken by Domingos Alves de Sousa decades before, he moved to Vila Real, thus joining the family project. Financial Director of the company Alves de Sousa, responsible for financing projects allocated to community funds and for various areas of the organization, logistics and management of the company, in 2014 she felt the need to complement her training in this area with a Postgraduate degree in Business Management from prestigious Porto Business School, in Porto. Patrícia is Commercial Responsible for some of the company's main markets, including Canada and Belgium.
With a bachelor in Communication Design from ESAD, Andreia Alves de Sousa has extensive experience in creating labels and packaging for wines not only in the family business, being the author of the labels for Vale da Raposa, Caldas, Estação, Oliveirinha, among others. but also in projects for other national producers.
ANDREIA ALVES DE SOUSA
DESIGNER
With a diverse background in the field of design, animation, audiovisual and multimedia, João Alves de Sousa has always shown an interest in different forms of expression, whether from animated films, advertising clips, design, video games, boosting social networks and experiences in Augmented Reality. João is a PhD in Interactive Art and he is a teacher and researcher at Lusófona University Porto, being director of the bachelor in Videogames and Multimedia Applications and deputy director of the bachelor in Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication, having been distinguished in 2021 by the "Fazer +" pedagogical innovation award. He won the first prize for Artistic Label in the Diário de Notícias Competition in 2005 and, in the same year, for Official Wine Label at Fantasporto, the International Fantastic Film Festival. He is also the author of the labels Abandonado and Vinha de Lordelo.
JOÃO ALVES DE SOUSA
DIGITAL MEDIA & DESIGN