History

The area where Quinta de São José de Peramanca is located has a very rich history, and from which it derives its name.
II B.C.
Roman occupation, the creation of the Lusitania province.
Early historical reports of wine production in the region where Quinta de São José da Peramanca lies.
XII
Portugal's independence from the Kingdom of Castile, at this time there was a strong incentive to the cultivation of vines in the region surrounding the city of Évora.
XIII
D. Afonso II (1211-1223) orders to plant vineyards along the brook of Peramanca, having found a unique terroir to produce wine of excellency.
XIV
The Aviz Dynasty elects the wine of these lands as a favourite of the court. D. João II specifically chose this wine to accompany the wedding banquet of his son. In the famous chronicle of André de Resende about the wedding of the Prince, is an account of King D. João II preference of this wine for his son's wedding - "Pera manca wine and other good ones that existed in the region.”
Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, the wine of these lands becomes popular among the Britons dealers.
XV
The vineyards surrounding the city of Évora gain recognition among the royal power and the Church, contributing positively to the economic development of the region of Évora until the seventeenth century.
XVI
D. Manuel I chooses the wine of this region to embark on caravels with the recommendation to "be drunk only by the captain and his peers and to be offered to the people that you may find."
In the letter of the Discovery of Brazil, Pedro Vaz de Caminha mentions the satisfaction of the indigenous when drinking the wine offered by the Portuguese, still today it is said in Brazil, that this was the wine taken by Pedro Alvares Cabral.
It is also in this century that the reference to the wines of these lands appears inscribed for the first time in the history of Portugal. Duarte Nunes de Leão, refers in his book, Description of the Kingdom of Portugal, "In Alemtejo there are the wines of the city of Évora, being the most estimed the ones of Peramanca, in flavour and subsistence: of which, used to say a great doctor, that by being friends to the stomach and nature, they put so much strength in a glass like a bread does, wine and meat from other places."
At the end of this century, in 1590, Manoel Luis, Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos and other students of the University of Évora sing this wine in the "Parody Bácchica", chant I of Os Lusíadas:

"Borrachos, borrachões assinalados,
Que d'Alcochete junto a Villa Franca,
Por mares nunca dantes despejados
Passaram ainda além de Peramanca
Em pagodes e ceias esforçados
Mais do que permitia a gente branca,
em Évora cidade se alojaram
Onde pipas e quartos despejaram."
XVII
The House of Bragança chooses the wines of this region as one of the favorites of the Court. It is said that D. João IV, founder of the dynasty, favored the wines of this particular region in his famous banquets in Vila Viçosa and Vila Boim.
During the reign of D. João V, the wine of this region is classified by the famous chef Vincent la Chapelle "as good as any French wine that was good." This assessment takes the monarch to determine that the wines of the land surrounding the city of Évora, known then as the land of Peramanca, are to be produced only for royal consumption.
It is built the Chapel of São José de Peramanca. Tulio Espanca, says in his work Artistic Heritage of the Municipality of Évora: "Its not prior to the 1st quarter of the seventeenth century and it was built on royal lands where, for centuries it was experienced with famous fruits, the wine of Peramanca, which is quoted in the fifteenth century chronics and was largely exported in Portuguese fleets in demand from overseas lands"
XVIII
The wines of this particular region are among the few wines to maintain their royal status of quality, despite the severe religious persecution and the expulsion of the Jesuits which had a strong negative impact in the vineyards of Évora, and also the changing of the importers preference for the dark and alcoholic wines of the Douro region.
XIX
In 1900, the quality of the wines of this region is mentioned and compared to the best French wines in a publication prepared for the Paris Universal Exhibition. Here you can read: "The wines of Peramanca, the whites mainly, are remarkable, light, delicate, pleasing to the palate and bouquet holders. Many compared it to the Sauterne and Barsac ".
The wines produced in the region surrounding the West Évora gain international prominence again, when they received several medals in competitions, especially gold in Bordeaux.
XX
In 1913, the great-grandfather of João Grave acquires Quinta de São José de Peramanca. Since then the huge house and the land around it, became property of the Grave family..
XXI - THE NEW START OF THE HISTORY
After nearly a century of interruption, João Grave decides to return to the productive origins of this land, the first vines were planted in 2003 and in 2005, the first Pêra-Grave wine is bottled.
The Pêra-Grave wines earn prizes and medals in international competitions. Currently the vineyard is fully planted, about 15.5 hectares, 14 of them with red grape and 1.5 of white.