Adega Cartuxa

A short drive from the walled centre of Évora, among the olive trees and vine rows of the Alentejo plain, the Adega Cartuxa works the estates of the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation — and gives its wines one of the most recognizable names of the region, beside the Capela dos Ossos‘ city of granite and marble.

The name of the monks

The winery takes its name from the Convento da Cartuxa, the Carthusian monastery that stands close by: the order shaped the religious and agricultural landscape of Évora for centuries, and the foundation that now runs the estate inherited much of that ground. The cellar brand was created in 1963, and its cellars and vineyards have grown into one of the reference houses of Alentejo wine.

Pêra-Manca and the Espinheiro

The house’s flagship carries an even older story: Pêra-Manca, a name traced to the vineyards of the Convento do Espinheiro, whose monks worked wine in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Revived by the foundation in 1990, the red has become one of Portugal’s most collected wines, and the estate’s tastings walk visitors through the estate’s olive groves, cellars and the plain that feeds them.

What to see

• The cellars of the Adega Cartuxa
• The Pêra-Manca story of the Espinheiro monks
• The vine rows and olive groves of the estate
• A guided tasting of the house wines
• The nearby Carthusian convent that gave the name

Practical information

The winery stands about two kilometres from Évora’s historic centre, on the road out through the olive country, reached by car or short taxi ride from the city. Tastings and visits run by schedule — check the estate’s official information and book ahead in high season.

Image credit: Convento da Cartuxa by Vitor Oliveira — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.