D'Oliveira

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Country of Origin: Portugal
Location: Funchal
People: Luis D'Oliveira & Felipe D'Oliveira, Owners

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Pereira D’Oliveira is a cornerstone of Madeira wine history, tracing its origins to the 1880s and incorporating legacies from firms as old as 1820. Housed in cellars dating back to 1619, this family-owned company stands as one of the last surviving symbols of Madeira's pre-phylloxera era. Founded by João Pereira D’Oliveira, a prominent landowner and grower in São Martinho, the company expanded through family marriages and strategic acquisitions.

Key milestones include:

  • 1930s: Its first major expansion came in the 1930s when João’s grandson, Agostinho, married into the Camacho family, acquiring the assets of João Joaquim Camacho & Sons, which had previously absorbed Julio Augusto Cunha & Sons, a notable 19th-century producer established in 1820.
  • 1980s: In the 1980s, D’Oliveira acquired Vasco Luis Pereira, a wine exporter founded in the 1920s, whose operations were taken over after the founder’s son opted not to continue the business.
  • 2000s: In the early 2000s, Agostinho’s sons, Aníbal and Luis, further expanded the company by purchasing Adegas Torreão, a partidista near the historic Hinton Torreão sugar works, which included stocks of rare vintage wines like the 1971 Terrantez, 1928 Sercial, and 1927 Bastardo.
  • 2013: D’Oliveira acquired Arturo de Barros e Sousa, a small traditional producer adjacent to its lodge on Rua dos Ferreiros, inheriting more Madeira stocks to bottle and release over time.

Modern Renaissance
In 1968, Aníbal and Luis D’Oliveira—the great-grandsons of João Pereira D’Oliveira—joined the firm, ushering in a new era of greatness. Prior to their arrival, D'Oliveira did not export and instead sold primarily to other producers on Madeira. This practice contributed to its unparalleled collection of old wines. Today, no other company on the island can boast such a wealth of old Madeiras. D’Oliveira is the reference point for properly aged Madeiras.

D'Oliveira has monumental Verdelhos from the family’s own São Martinho vineyards (one of the great viticulture sites in Madeira, lying just west of Funchal), vintaged 1850, 1890, 1900, 1905 and 1912. There are no finer examples of mature Verdelho in existence today. Digging into the D’Oliveira’s library, one can also find profound Malvasias (aka Malmseys), Buals and Sercials. The family also boasts superb examples of three rare grape varieties: Terrantez (1880 and 1899), Bastardo (1927) and Moscatel (1875 and 1900), as well as Tinta Negras from 1929 and 1995, made available after recent changes to Madeira’s wine laws.

While D’Oliveira has an unparalleled library of ancient Madeiras, it also possesses one of the most impressive stocks of relatively young vintage-dated wines. These include both frasqueiras and colheitas, the difference being time in wood. Frasqueiras require 20 years in wood; colheitas require only five.

D'Olivera's house style is distinguished by very powerful aromatics, great lushness and viscosity, incredible structure, and a tangy character that is essential to the finest Madeira wines. D’Oliveira believes that Madeiras age best in cask. Consequently, its old vintages are kept in wood, and only enough is bottled to meet short-term needs. The winery was among the first on the island to add bottling years to its back labels to emphasize how long each wine had spent in cask.

A Timeless Legacy
Now led by Luis D’Oliveira and Felipe, Aníbal’s son, Pereira D’Oliveira remains one of the world’s great family-owned wine producers. Its deep reserves of ancient and young Madeiras, combined with a steadfast dedication to quality, continue to make it a benchmark in Madeira wine.

Reviews

  • D'Oliveira 1977 Bual, Madeira DOC
    The Wine Advocate
    Rating: 94 (11/1/2008)
    The 1977 D’Oliveiras Boal Reserva reveals superb depth and precision in its leather, spices, toffee and espresso. Smooth and remarkably balanced on the palate, this Madeira offers tons of length and plenty of style.
  • D'Oliveira 1968 Bual, Madeira DOC
    John Gilman View from the Cellar
    Rating: 94 (3/1/2014)
    This is a really complex and classy bottle of Bual that is very pure and expressive, as it offers up a deep and vibrant nose of orange peel, golden raisins, heather, a beautifully complex and very salty base of soil, spiced meats and a lovely dollop of rancio as a topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with a fine core of fruit, excellent focus and grip and a very long, bright and perfectly balanced finish where the sweetness is effortlessly carried by the ripe and very well-integrated acids. Lovely juice. I should note that I tasted this same wine from an earlier bottling back in 2011 and liked the wine very much at that time, but gave this more recent bottling tasted at the lodge a point higher score, which I think underscores how these wines get incrementally better with each subsequent bottling at the domaine. 2014- 2100.
  • D'Oliveira 1968 Bual, Madeira DOC
    The Wine Spectator
    Rating: 96 (2/17/2016)
    Balanced and plush, with concentrated buttercream, hazelnut, dried apricot and tropical fruit flavors that are still fresh and lively. Citrus zest and sea salt notes show midpalate. The finish lingers with cream, dried tarragon and Asian spice details. Drink now through 2035.