Mateus & Sequeira - The company and the man

The Mateus & Sequeira winery is inseparable from the life and work of its founder and director, Manuel Mateus. Born on 7 October 1960, in Soutelo do Douro, a parish in the municipality of São João da Pesqueira, Manuel Mateus grew up in a family linked to agriculture and, in particular, to vineyards.

From a very young age, he showed himself to be fearless and enterprising. At just 15 years old, he went to the city of Porto to help his father in a coffee shop, but shortly after, he already had his own business, in the machinery and automotive sector. Five years later, already married to Alice Sequeira, a native of the same parish and also a descendant of wine and vineyard families, he decided to return to his origins, to the Douro. While continuing to work in the automotive sector, he began working in the agricultural sector, acquiring a machine and providing services in earthmoving, clearing and planting vineyards. Over time, Manuel Mateus acquired new plots of land in addition to those the family already owned, planting vineyards whenever the opportunity arose. At the same time, with vineyards and olive groves associated on several properties in the Douro, quality olive oil became another of his passions, and he ended up acquiring four olive oil mills.

In 1997, Manuel Mateus launched his first foray into the wine business. Based on a leading production and management model, he successfully created and developed Douro and Port wines in various wineries in the region, laying the foundations for what would become Mateus & Sequeira, founded in 2008. From then on, based on his accumulated knowledge and the dynamics of the new company, Manuel Mateus dedicated himself exclusively to producing his own wines, bottled under his own brands, thus beginning a new era.

Widely recognised in the Portuguese wine sector for his achievements as a successful businessman, Manuel Mateus is, above all, a Douro native who knows the region where he was born and where he works like no other. The company he founded, Mateus & Sequeira, now owns 28 estates, with around 600 hectares of vineyards and 50 hectares of olive groves. Manuel Mateus also maintains close relations with around 2,000 winegrowers in the region, from whom he purchases grapes. Mateus & Sequeira wines are produced entirely in the company's three winemaking centres, located in Peso da Régua, São João da Pesqueira and Vila Nova de Foz Côa, and are sold in over 20 markets worldwide. Father of two children, Cláudia and Pedro, who are now fully integrated into the family business, and grandfather of four grandchildren, Francisca, Afonso, Mateus Jr and Pedro Jr, Manuel Mateus today displays a unique legacy that will forever be marked in the history of the Douro, the oldest demarcated wine region in the world.