OÃO SILVA E SOUSA

He was the former wine-maker for Offley Port and the Technical Director for all the Sogrape Vineyards in Portugal. In 1999 he creates a new wine company called VDS that sells in 2005. He is now building is own new wine company in Douro and working as a Wine consultant for several wine and Port wine companies.

International References (awards and press clipping):

- Decanter Magazine June 2001, 136 Portuguese wines tasted, 12 Douro wines got the highest rank (Highly Recommended) we’ve placed 2 wines in this category. We’ve also placed 5 other wines in the second highest rank (Recommended)

- International Wine Challenge 2002. we’ve achieved one Gold Medal, two Silver Medals and 3 Bronze medals.

- Daily Telegraph , July 20, 2002. Wine of the week. The first Portuguese wine to be considered “Wine of the week”

- Wall Street Journal Europe , Weekend Journal, January 31 to February 2: “Ripe for Praise: Portuguese Wines Come of Age”, excellent comments on one of our wines.

- Wine Masters Challenge 2003. we’ve achieved one Gold Medal, two Silver Medals and 6 Bronze medals.

- Wine Spectator May 31, 2003. One of our wines exported to the USA was rated 90 points.

- International Wine Challenge 2003. we’ve achieved one Gold Medal, two Silver Medals and 5 Bronze medals.

- VINEXPO 2003. One of our wines was elected by the “Jury Decouvertes” (13 wine writers from 8 countries and 6 finalists in the World Best Sommelier Competition) to be one of its VINEXPO “TOP TEN STAR WINES”.

- Wine International Magazine September issue. In the “ New Douro Dawning, Fountain of Youth” article, one of our wines was rated 95 points and we’ve been placed among “The Douro’s rising winemaker stars”.

- Decanter Magazine, November 2003. Cover article “Top 100 wines under 10£”. 50 red wines and 50 with wines evaluated. Ratings between **** Highly Recommended (only 15 wines) and *** Recommended. One of our red wines, rated **** Highly Recommended, was the only Portuguese wine in this article.