The Artist

João Afonso

In 1979, he went from being a university student to a professional dancer in the Gulbenkian Ballet. He danced with this Dance Group until 1993. He has travelled all over the world and worked with the greatest masters and choreographers of the time. Life is beautiful!

Towards the end of 1993, as Principal dancer and at the height of his career, he decided to retire.

Since his wife gave him the book “Knowing and Making Wine” by Emile Peynaud, in 1983, he never again stopped thinking about wine but stopped thinking about pirouettes.

This book would be his passport to a new life.

In 1994, when he went back to the province with his wife and three small children, tired of Lisbon, he made his first red wine from the family vineyard in Beira Alta (Souropires/Pinhel). Because of this wine, he met Dirk Niepoort, who at the time was also searching for the road to his wine, in a family with three generations of service to port wine. Dirk’s support in the following two years ended up being linked to the appearance of the Rogenda brand.

In 2006, for personal reasons, he left the Rogenda project he had cared so much for and the brand disappeared shortly afterwards.

In 2009, he found the century-old vineyards in Quinta das Cabeças and plunged into a new adventure.