In 1974, the year of Portugal’s Car­na­tion Rev­o­lu­tion, João António Cerdeira and his wife Palmi­ra became the first peo­ple to plant Alvar­in­ho grapes in Mel­gaço, in the north­ern­most part of the country’s Vin­ho Verde region. Orig­i­nal­ly work­ing from his family’s garage (in place of their old red Ford Estate), João pro­duced wines under the Soal­heiro name from 1982, includ­ing a pio­neer­ing sparkling Alvar­in­ho in 1995. Cham­pi­oning this white grape has become Soalheiro’s modus operan­di and its wines are glob­al­ly rec­og­nized for their bright­ness and inten­si­ty.