I was born south of the Tagus, cradled by Lisbon’s light in the background. My childhood is also wrapped in stories of land and agriculture, of strange fruit trees, half pear, half apple, and others such as vines, flowers and pine forests. There is also a cellar in this story. My grandfather, who was also a gardener and had a tiny vineyard from which he made red wine in a wine press. Then there were many places, almost all to the South, between little villages and cities until I became a woman in Lisbon. I taught dance lessons, and I was a sociologist. It was dance that brought me and António together. He was an editor of an Arts Magazine at the time, but he held on to his dream of becoming a wine producer and create wine art from the vines planted by his father. So, I roamed to the North and love led me to create the CASA de MOURAZ.
Sara Dionísio
I was born in December 1970 in a granite house built by my father, António Ribeiro, on land my mother Maria Fernanda inherited from her father, who in his turn had inherited it from my great-grand father. The stone used in the construction was itself, pulled from that same land. According to my father, who is over ninety, it took them two years to build the house and the warehouses. So from this inhospitable patch of land, a beautiful construction was born along with perfectly arable terraces where the Outeiro vineyard would later be planted.
I was born above the winery, with concrete tanks, a winepress and casks. In December the wines were still developing inside their containers and the aromas rose through the gaps in the floorboards and into my bedroom. I’m the fourth son, brother to Adriano, Hélder and Jorge. I recollect a childhood spent in the midst of books, children’s games and naps in the countryside, underneath vines, olives and pine trees. We used to watch the clouds in the sky and make up thousands of stories.
António Ribeiro