Harvest: The harvest begins at the end of August and is completed by mid October. Due to the steepness of the island geography, the harvest is very labour intensive, as all grapes are picked by hand.

Currently, the company buys its grapes from over 600 growers, of which about 20 account to 80% of the total volume, and from March onwards, the company's viticulture team does regular checks of the vineyards, providing assistance and advice to growers so as to ensure that the best possible quality is achieved. During the harvest, each area has a regional agent, who checks maturation, coordinates the picking and delivery of the grapes to the winery in Funchal.

On arrival, all grapes are analyzed, classified, weighed and immediately processed to remove all the stalks, then crushed to remove the seeds and skins. The stalks are treated as waste, but the seeds and skins are collected in crates and given to the farmers for agricultural feed.

Vinification: Different vinification methods are used, according to the different grape varieties. Tinta Negra produces dry and medium dry wines with no maceration or medium rich and rich wines when using maceration and auto-vinification techniques. White Varieties are subject to maceration in order to gain the maximum dry extract from the grapes. The rich-style wines are fortified after approximately 24 hours while the driest wines ferment for 7 days before fortification.

Aguardente vs. Grape Alcohol: The custom of the “mixing” the wine with aguardente used to take place before heating, but later on it came to be added after this. At the beginning of the 19th century, the habit was to use French grape brandy; however, in 1822 the importing of this was prohibited so alcohol made on the island was used, which was of an inferior quality. Later on, during the 20th century alcohol extracted from sugar-cane was used and from the middle of the century onwards grape spirit replaced this.

Fortification: Fermentation takes place in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and is stopped by fortification with brandy, 96%, produces wines between 17.5% and 21% alcohol strength. All the wines are fortified up to 19% alcohol by volume.

Production: In the past, the must was emptied into barrels or vats where, as a general rule, it fermented for about two months. When fermentation finished the wines were separated from the dregs and transferred to other casks, to be aged in either the “estufa” or “canteiro” method. Up until the mid 18th century, the making of the wine consisted of these steps and then subsequent blending with older wine. But from this period onwards, the process of mixing the wine with aguardente became common.