DFJ Vinhos, S.A. : Highest Quality Portuguese Wines, The New Portugal

DFJ Vinhos SA is proud of its achievements, having exported over 99 percent of its 8 million bottles to over 50 countries since 1998. “Out of ten million bottles, DFJ Vinhos SA exports 99 percent.”

Internationalization, efficiency, and diversity of the bid in response to consumer wants are the watchwords of a firm whose main goal is to achieve the best quality/price ratio for each of its products at all times in order to keep its customers happy. A risk that has paid off, as proven by the company’s rising international presence and the numerous awards it has garnered outside of Portugal: over 3500 since 2010.

DFJ makes wine on 250 hectares of vines, mostly in the Lisbon area, and on many estates. Quinta do Porto Franco, with 80 hectares and one winemaking core, is the most important. This is where José Neiva Correia grew up. Quinta da Fonte Bela, the headquarters of DFJ Vinhos, is as substantial, with 50 hectares and another winemaking base.

WINEMAKING & INNOVATION

Herdeiros, José Neiva Correia, brings a neat agriculture to the careful selection of grape varieties to be planted in the numerous fields, Herdeiros, José Neiva Correia, where there is no room for chemicals in their soils, only for high-quality organic matter and carefully chosen rootstocks according to the conditions.

This winemaker recently carried out another experiment, this time in the municipality of Torres Vedras, with the same enthusiasm and spirit of innovation that characterize him: he planted a hectare and a half of Dorn Felder. a German grape variety with early maturation and great resistance to Atlantic impact that makes wines with a lot of color and fruit, even to consumer taste, but is almost unknown in Portugal and the general public. The findings were so outstanding that the company is already intending to release a variety of products as soon as regulations allow. We’ll have to wait and see if we can back it up with evidence.

Jose Neiva Correia grew up in a land of wine and vineyards, at Quinta de Porto Franco, one of the oldest properties in the municipality of Alenquer, with a history that predates the country’s independence, according to numerous historians. One of Portugal’s most successful winemakers, José Neiva Correia, will pursue a large portion of the raw material for DFJ Vinhos, the company he founded in 1998 and which now produces an estimated annual production of eight million bottles, 30 labels, and 110 different wines from the Douro, Peninsula de Setbal, Lisbon, and Verdes regions of Portugal.

José Neiva Correia, a descendant of many generations of winegrowers, carried on the family legacy with taste and skill on both his father’s and mother’s lines. Anyone who knows him or has worked with him can attest to the zeal with which he marks each of his various and varied wines, in which he blends unlikely grape varieties with unexpected results. Whether top-of-the-line at higher costs and smaller runs, or higher volumes to fulfill enormous overseas markets, the need for end-product quality is unquestionably the same. You must be able to do it perfectly.

As a winemaker, he has been in the forefront of introducing new grape varieties to Portugal, fighting for more environmentally sustainable agriculture, and seeking solutions to one of the industry’s most critical problems: how to better fence bottles with cork stoppers. He also invented and patented an ozone-based cork disinfection technology (which he later sold to the Amorim Group) that helps to minimize the quantity of TCA (trichloroanisole, the component that produces “smell a stopper”), the winemaker’s worst enemy.

Quinta da Fonte Bela – Cathedral of the Wine

It is a one-of-a-kind centennial property located 80 kilometers north of Lisbon in Vila Ch de Ourique – Cartaxo. The majority of the constructions are examples of “Cast-iron architecture,” which was popularized in the second half of the nineteenth century by Eiffel’s disciples. All of the amenities were designed by engineers from Eiffel’s studio, who were in Portugal at the time to work on big projects like the Santa Justa elevator in Lisbon and the D. Lus Bridge in Porto. António Francisco Ribeiro Ferreira, the owner of the Quinta at the time, took advantage of their presence and commissioned the designs for what would become the center of his agricultural activity.

The DFJ headquarters, which includes offices, a vinification center, a bottling line, warehouses, a basement with a capacity of 9.3 million liters, cooperage, laboratory, and living room, is part of Quinta da Fonte Bela, popularly known as the Wine Cathedral. In all, 17,197 m2 of open area and 8,063 m2 of covered space are available.

DFJ VINHOS took home 610 awards in 2021, including 28 trophies and 281 gold medals. Since 2010, they received 3755 accolades.

DFJ VINHOS SA recently competed in the ASIA AWARDS 2021, where they won 7 GOLD MEDAL AWARDS and 3 SILVER MEDALS AWARDS:

Awarded Gold by Asia Import News

1. CASA DO LAGO – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine
2. CORETO – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine
3. ESCADA – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine
4. JAG – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine
5. PORTADA Lote DFJ – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine
6. PORTADA Lote DFJ Reserva – RED 2019 / LISBOA Regional Wine
7. SEGADA – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine

Awarded Silver by Asia Import News
1. PAXIS BLEND – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine
2. PORTADA Winemakers Selection – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine
3. PORTADA Medium Sweet – RED 2020 / LISBOA Regional Wine

Importers and Distributors for more information about DFJ VINHOS SA please CLICK HERE or email MR. LUÍS GOUVEIA : [luis.gouveia@dfjvinhos.com](mailto:luis.gouveia@dfjvinhos.com)