FAMILY
HISTORY
There, Humberto Cardoso installed the winery that grew up to the present size.
The Farm House Humberto Cardoso grew with the sale of bulk wine in the region. Its founder has become one of the largest wine producers in the region and highlighted by his dedication to Palmela.
Humberto Cardoso travelled a lot and had a habit of photographing what he liked, as inspiration. In 1952, as mayor, he built the St. John Movie Theatre, which marked the cultural life of Palmela and he was personally went to Germany to get one of the most modern projection system for this movie theatre.
Early, Humberto da Silva Cardoso gave the entire management of the farms and wineries to their children, Rui and Álvaro Cardoso, leaving the country to fulfil a dream yours - a world tour in the company of his wife.
Very young, Álvaro Cardoso claimed responsibility for the family business, which has developed following the original model. With almost 500 hectares of vineyards were the second largest producer in the region following the Rio Frio, the largest vineyard in Europe. Produced 3 to 4 million litters of wine, an extraordinary amount at the time, sold in bulk for large companies in the region. Álvaro also stood out as mayor of Palmela, bringing piped water to the region, making him a highly respected figure of Palmela.
Later his nephew, Humberto, graduated in Agronomy, came to join the company. Humberto had a dream – bottling their own wines. The dream eventually come true, when the fourth generation of this family took the reins by the hand of his son, Filipe Cardoso.
Filipe Cardoso saw in the extensive area of old vines and family experiences, the opportunity to select extraordinary wines. The current project Quinta do Piloto was born in 2008, to advertise these special wines. Dedicated to bottle quality wines in small quantities, Quinta do Piloto is the culmination of a history spanning four generations dedicated to Palmela. A secret finally revealed.
The history of Quinta do Piloto covers four generations of a family that has grown linked to the history of Palmela over a century.
In the early twentieth century, in 1900, Humberto da Silva Cardoso went to Brazil in search of fortune. But he returned shortly after, as he left.
A few years later, after his return to Palmela, Humberto Cardoso married Adelaide Carvalho Cardoso, the daughter of an illustrious family of wineries owners, whom was linked to the growth of Palmela.
Humberto Cardoso was a young entrepreneur and visionary man; a dreamer. He saw at the beginning of the automobile industry, the opportunity to create a bus company – Auto-cars Palmelense, so he was an early pioneer in Portugal and the first one to create an international bus line. The growth of Lisbon led to it being the Auto-cars Palmelense to provide many of the first bus of the National Highway.
Although, Humberto saw an opportunity in the expansion of viticulture in Palmela, so he sold his bus company and decided to invest the profits from this business in viticulture.
He bought three large estates: Lau, Agualva and Fonte da Barreira, where he began planting vines. It also built two wineries, Quinta do Piloto and Serra.
This was the start of Cardoso family in wine business.
