Medronho – Aguardente of the Algarve

OLD TRADITION

IN NEW PERFECTION

We live our dream for the best quality

Welcome to the Destilaria Phoenix

Medronho grows and thrives in the hinterland of the Algarve - where the climate is harsh and influenced by the Atlantic.
The fruits of the "strawberry tree" have a distinctive flavour of their own and only develop their full aroma when distilled.
The berries ripen slowly; the bright red-orange fruits are harvested from September to December.

In rough terrain, the wild fruits are harvested by hand, carefully sorted out and prepared for the distillation.

As a small family business, we have worked for many years towards establishing our own distillery.

We have been inspired by the old local master distillers.

With ambition and passion, we now cultivate our own Aquardente de Medronho.

We produce only a limited quantity of about 300 litres per year, each bottle bottled and numbered by hand.

This ensures that the quality of our Medronho remains continuously high.

We only use fruit from our own land.

Über

Care & Harvest

Every year, we spend up to 1000 hours cultivating and harvesting our medronho plants.
Everything is done painstakingly by hand - the terrain on the partly steep natural slopes is too inaccessible for the use of machines.
The fruits also have to be harvested and sorted by hand

Usually from September, after the first autumn rains, the laborious process of harvesting begins.
Not all berries on the panicles ripen at the same time - still firm fruits hang next to the soft, fully ripe and red shining "strawberries".
Thus, each tree has to be visited several times until all fruits are harvested.

Only a constant quality in the selection of the fruits guarantees a fine result.

With the same care, the harvested fruits are again selected and sorted by hand before the mash is prepared.
The fruits are stored in barrels for more than seven months, and only then may the distilling begin.

The Aguardente of the Algarve has a clear, pure and unadulterated taste, perfected by the experience of the master distiller.
The distilling of Medronho has a long tradition in the south of Portugal. With our distillery, we have brought this tradition back to life and made it our task to create a high-quality product from the best fruits of the Algarve.