The Rolling Stones and a Stairway to Heaven
The Rolling Stones and a Stairway to Heaven
The Portuguese monastery where two great stories converge
One of the most famous and famously expensive wines in Alentejo takes its name from the granite boulder fields around the World Heritage city of Évora in the heart of Alentejo wine country.
The region’s history is built on solid foundations: Neolithic man first hauled ancient almond-shaped boulders into the Cromlech of the Almendres stone circle 7,000 years ago – two thousand years before the building of Stonehenge
And intertwined with the history is a wine called Pêra Manca meaning “wobbling” or “rolling” stone, made in only the finest years and selling today for hundreds of euros a bottle.
The name “Peramanca” dates back centuries. In the year 1500, bottles of the already famous Évora regional wine were said to be on board explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral’s ship when he landed in Brazil.
The winery now producing the latest iteration of Pêra Manca is called Cartuxa, another name (pronounced Car-TOUSH-ah) which spans history, from an 11th century saint to the beautiful monastery on the edge of Évora where their two stories converge.
For decades the silent presence of an ancient order of monks has guarded their most precious bottles in a dark dusty cellar beneath a lake.
It’s a story that overlaps with English Charterhouse schools the Carthusians set up, the sticky Green Chartreuse liqueur which once lingered in the back of my parents’ cocktail cabinet and a rich Portuguese family foundation.
That’s a lot to unpack, but to start at the very beginning would be to start with Saint Bruno of Cologne.
In 1084 the Benedictine monk built a hermitage in the beautiful Chartreuse Valley in south-eastern France and founded a Catholic monastic order which survives to this day.
And his austere Carthusian monks not only survived, but thrived with the help of a secret herbal remedy acquired in 1737 and sold as a strong alcoholic liqueur to raise money to build new monasteries.
Today Green and Yellow Chartreuse are the darlings of modern mixologists, in greater demand for cocktails than the monks can supply.
Over the centuries, the Carthusians founded 300 monasteries across the world. In 14th century London they were known as Charterhouses and some became schools.
The Carthusians were first invited to Portugal in 1583 by the archbishop of Évora, and four years later building work began on the Santa Maria da Scala Coeli monastery...a name which means “Stairway to Heaven.”
Wine and religion have passed the centuries in close communion and while some periods of history have been kinder to Catholic religious orders than others, the story of Alentejo’s wine followed their fortunes through war, revolution, reformation and eventual dissolution.
In Portugal the dissolution came in 1834 when the monks left the Évora monastery and what’s known as the “Convent of Cartuxa” became a hospice and an agricultural school before falling into disrepair.
Despite being sold in 1871 to Portugal’s third richest man, José Maria Eugénio de Almeida, its only continuing connection to wine was when the once beautiful building was turned into a factory for cork stoppers.
It would be more than a century before the Carthusian monks would return and some of the finest Portuguese wines would be found ageing in its dark, sandy-floored cellar, beneath a lake, as they are today.
The vineyards of Alentejo’s rolling stones had been supported by religious dedication and equally suffered when the monasteries collapsed.
Under the stewardship of the winemakers of Casa Soares the name Pêra Manca had again gained worldwide recognition as a fine wine in the late 1880s.
But while its vintages were being celebrated in Bordeaux, the region’s vines were being lost to diseases like phylloxera or being ripped out and replaced by cereals.
Pêra Manca was a name that would be doomed to obscurity – at least until the Count of Vill’alva came along.
Vasco Maria Eugénio de Almeida – Count Vasco de Vill’alva – was the last heir to the family fortune, and the man who not only brought Carthusian monks back to their monastery, but whose foundation reinvented Pêra Manca as one of Portugal’s finest wines.
He was just 27 when he inherited a fortune passed down by his grandfather José Maria Eugénio de Almeida – the rich businessman who had bought the Santa Maria da Scala Coeli monastery in 1871.
He fell in love with Évora and the Alentejo, staying at the monastery when visiting, and it was just one of the historic buildings he restored in the city.
The Count Vasco de Vill’alva championed education, supporting the farming community mostly through grape and olive planting.
In 1963 he put the family money into the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation which to this day runs programmes for arts and culture, scholarship and support...and owns Cartuxa which puts profits back into the foundation.
It has 600ha of vineyards and produces a whole range of wines from its Monte de Pinheiros winery which gives its name to the “entry level” brand.
The portfolio of wines include “EA” taking the initials of the foundation, Floral de Évora and the finer Cartuxa branded wines, Scala Coeli (taking its name from the monastery) right up to Pêra-Manca whites and reds which age in the monastery’s cellar and sell for hundreds of euros a bottle.
Made from the same two Portuguese grapes Aragonez and Trincadeira and from the same blocks, the wines are only produced if they’re good enough to hold the historic name handed over to the foundation in 1987 by descendants of the Casa Soares family.
The characteristic label is adapted from a famous 18th century advert.
I haven’t tried it yet – but here’s the story of a vertical tasting from someone who has.
There’ll be a lot more in episode six of the upcoming podcast about Cartuxa, and the Scala Coeli monastery which we were lucky enough to visit after the Carthusian monks had left and just before an order of nuns moved in.
Have a listen to our teaser and look out for more updates…the podcast series is launching soon!
Maybe the best piece I've yet read about the Cartuxa winery, the wonderful foundation it's part of, and the foundation's visionary founder.