Monte da Casteleja, located in Sargaçal, in Lagos, owes its name to the discovery on the farm grounds of the ruins of a small castle from Roman times. Guillaume Leroux, son of a French father and mother from the Algarve, inherited this farm from his maternal grandfather, where he has been producing organic wine since 2008.

The choice of grape varieties to plant was carefully thought out right from the start, and he opted for traditional varieties that he had already worked with in the Douro.

He already knew more or less the wine he would obtain, a wine for ageing, with more body, more complex, for a more knowledgeable public and keeping some old grape varieties. He also tried to introduce a concept of “producer’s wine” and make different and original wines due to the producer’s experience, the grape varieties and the terrain.

The farm has almost 7 hectares in total, of which 3 hectares are vineyards planted with the Bastardo, Alfrocheiro, Malvasia Fina, Perrum, Arinto and Sousão grape varieties, which, according to the producer, produce full-bodied wines, with good acidity, in which you don’t feel the alcohol. They are not, therefore, heavy wines; they are more elegant wines, where there is always a feeling of freshness and fruit.

Since the beginning, the grape harvest has been done the old-fashioned way, with the manual selection and cutting of the grapes. The winery seeks to combine technology with ancestral winemaking techniques, such as foot treading in the press, maceration with stalks and ageing in barrels.

On the farm, besides the sale of wines in the shop, there are wine tastings, visits to the vineyard and to the facilities – cellar and winery -, and there is also the possibility of participating in the grape harvest and the treading of the grapes.