The winery is only one part of the next chapter.
Other ruins across the estate are waiting for new lives. Our longer-term plans include restoring some of them as intimate luxury agritourism accommodation, allowing guests to stay within the landscape rather than simply visit it. Kilometres of paths already wind through the vineyards and forest, creating routes for walking and quad biking across the Quinta.
The intention is not to turn Standing Fox into a conventional resort. We want a small number of guests to be able to experience the estate from within: the vineyards, forest, olive groves, food, landscape and, of course, the wines where they are made.
Standing Fox is also a community of people.
The people who work with us are all local, and some have known this land for their entire lives. A few were even born here. Their practical knowledge of the landscape is part of what shapes the Quinta today. We invest in training and education because we want the people who work here to grow with the project.
Our relationship with Santa Cruz do Douro extends beyond employment. We support the local church and village festivals, traditions that matter in a small community and that connect the Quinta to a place with a history much longer than ours.
The vineyards themselves are still evolving. Young Touriga Nacional, Chardonnay, Syrah, Viognier, Merlot and Nebbiolo are beginning their stories beside Avesso and Arinto vines planted generations earlier. The soil programme continues. The forest continues to change. New olive groves and Portuguese trees are taking root.
And the wines are beginning to tell us what all of this work might mean.
We did not begin Standing Fox with scores, categories or a target market in mind. We wanted to make wines we would be proud to pour for family, friends and people whose taste we respect, and compelling enough to share with a wider world.
That standard has not changed.
The Quinta is still being put together. Buildings are still waiting for their next lives. Young vines are still growing. Wines are still resting in the cellar. And the design of the new winery is still taking shape.
Standing Fox is no longer simply a place we found.
It is a place we are responsible for, and one whose next chapter we are now beginning to build.
Trust your instinct.
