Da Cruz e Teles is a partnership between two of the most brilliant vignerons from Portugal, Tiago Teles and António Marques da Cruz. The idea of working together started in 2015 when they approached the family of the late José Mendonça about working their vineyard in Figueira da Foz. This place was the main source of the grapes of “Quinta dos Cozinheiros”, so the name of the wines “COZs-“ is a diminutive of “cozinheiros” (cooks) in memory of José Mendonça and his vineyard.

Led by the success of their first vineyard, Tiago and António purchased in 2017 a 3-hectare vineyard “Vinha da Pena “ in Serra de Montejunto,  a mountain range also in the region of Lisbon. One year later, they bought another 1/2 hectare in the same mountain with the name of “Vinha do Outeiro” where the average age of the vines is 35 years old. This 35 year-old vineyard is planted on clay-limestone soils with Vital, a white varietal. Currently they produce in these vineyards only the Vital variety, which only exists in this area of Portugal. Here too the farming is organic. For the reds that they only produce with Castelão, they buy grapes certified as BIO from a farmer who they can also follow the work in the field. They vinify these wines in the winery of this farmer from whom they buy the red grapes. All the wines will make malolactic until the end, none of them would be filtered, glued or corrected and they only use natural yeasts.

The vineyards planted under the Atlantic climate are 50 km north of Lisbon, only 18 km from the Atlantic Ocean and they are situated at 250 and 300 metres of altitude.