Center for the Interpretation and Promotion Of The Vinho Verde

The Casa Torreada dos Barbosa Aranha, a building classified of Public Interest, dates from century XVII and was bought by the Municipality of Ponte de Lima, in a stage it was in big degradation. Several partnerships were started since that date to promote the Vinho Verde, namely with the Commission of Viticulture of this region that has taken interest in making this structure a reality today.

The museological program, associated to the architecture of the space, has always had in mind two main factors: the singularity of the history of the territory and, as a consequence, the Vinho Verde as a result of its terroir. Some of its most peculiar pieces, such as the syringe for the phylloxera, or the barrel with wooden rings, among others, revive the memory of the older people and marvel the younger. Inside the Auditorium a short movie invites the visitor to enter the Region of Vinhos Verdes and to cover the territory of its nine sub-regions. Finally, the Tasting Room, as one can’t get “the flavour” without tasting it! Eça de Queirós wrote in a letter to Ramalho Ortigão, in 1873: “ I constantly think of the beautiful roads of Minho, in its white and cold villages – and cold! – the good Vinho Verde that lifts the soul…”