The story of Aphros begins in Casal do Paço, a traditional Quinta at the heart of Lima Valley, a region with an eco-system of an extraordinary diversity and luxurious vegetation where for many centuries or many centuries an admirable culture of subsistence agriculture flourished.
Between the plains near the Ocean and the mountains of Gerês, fertile hills of granitic soils harbor a balance forests and cultivated areas, where the vine found a perfect terroir, harmoniously blended with other cultures such as cereals, vegetables, fruit orchards, olive trees and a variety of domestic animals and wildlife.
Belonging to a family from Lisbon, the Quinta became a place of retreat for long holidays in the last decades of the 20th century, a time during which peasants were gradually leaving, unable to survive the new context of modern life with all its radical social and economic changes.
Visiting the farm across early childhood and adolescence Vasco still witnessed and took part in this peasant culture, still alive in an almost medieval form, which made a deep impact in him all throughout his formative years.
The farm being almost abandoned in the beginning of the 21st, in 2004 Vasco Croft took in hands the responsibility of restructuring it, with the vision of a sustainable, ecological project to bring it back to life for the future.
As a lifelong student of Rudolf Steiner he took inspiration from the ideas of biodynamics, reshaping the farm: areas of vines restructured for mechanized labour, chestnut orchards introduced, covercrops, animals, and biodynamic preparations were put in place.
Special alcoholic plant extracts started to be developed and used in order to deal with hard conditions of humidity while keeping copper treatments to a minimum.
Interested in wine after a meeting with a Buddhist monk, and enthusiastic about the new impulse biodynamics were bringing to the rediscovery of terroir in the wine world, the decision was made to start producing and bottling, reactivating the old cellar in the basement of the house.
In a couple of years the cellar had to expand to the garden for lack of space, in order to respond to the increasing worldwide demand for the wines. What started as a side project became a serious one, growing with a vision that brought together fundamental interests present throughout Vasco’s life: a love for nature, arts and community building.
As the project was consolidating into new dimension in terms of practice, team and volume, it justified the investment in 2 Quintas adjacent to each other near Ponte de Lima: Casa Nova which was bought and Valflores through a long term lease, together adding 14 ha to existing 6.
Following this expansion, in 2015 a new cellar was built, with the capacity to process the totality of the grapes from all 3 vineyards, whilst the old cellar in Padreiro was converted into a “medieval cellar” destined to process wines in ancient, pre-industrial ways without any use of electric equipments.
In 2023 another step was made with the creation of visitors centre next to the new cellar, aimed at communicating the winery’s philosophy and practice in an experiential way while developing a closer connection with the public and the local community. It is seen as welcoming haven for cultural meeting and exchange, where plastic arts, music, dance, courses and lectures can take place with the blessing, and within the context of natural wine, itself a relevant cultural statement for our times.
