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The exact date Quinta dos Murças was founded is unknown; however, documents indicate that it already existed in 1714 and belonged to António Cardoso de Vasconcelos. On the occasion of the marriage of the daughter of this ex-First Captain of the town of Murça, the property located in Covelinhas (currently the parish of the Peso da Régua municipality) came into the possession of the Colmeeiros, a family of nobles originally from Galicia. In 1756, the time when the Douro region was demarcated, the quinta (farm) belonged to Miguel Carlos Cardoso de Sousa de Morais Colmeeiro Teles e Távora. This nobleman from the Royal Household was also First Captain of the town Murça, which means that it is likely that the name of the quinta comes from the position that the first owners occupied. The first mention of the property as Quinta dos Murças dates back to 1770, and it is said that high-quality fortified wines were produced here for export to England. However, despite its winegrowing potential, the quinta would see its fields left unfarmed and eventually the property put up for sale. At the end of the 19th century it belonged to the Silveira Pinto family and, at the beginning of the next century, to Tibério Marques da Fonseca and Casa Tait & Cº, which sold it to the company Murças Limitada in 1930. The company set up its head office at Quinta dos Murças at the time, as well as acquiring neighbouring properties. Although the winegrowing area of the quinta was expanded and developed further, Murças Limitada eventually ignored the winegrowing capacity of the property in favour of agreements with wine export companies. This situation would only change from 1943 onwards, when Manuel Pinto de Azevedo, who was now a partner in the company, took over the running of the quinta, after having bought all the shares of Murças Limitada. The Porto industrialist was committed to renovating the farm, planting miles of vineyards and rebuilding and repairing the houses, wine presses and wineries. In spite of this, wine production only really advanced under the guidance of the young agronomist José de Freitas Sampaio in the mid-50s, with a veritable revolution in the farm’s cultivation and vinification techniques, which led to the first vinha ao alto (vines planted on terraces) in Douro in 1955. In 1956, the first auto-vinification system in the Douro was introduced at Quinta dos Murças and José de Freitas Sampaio also decided to build a new warehouse and install a centrifugal machine. As a result, Murças Limitada made a profit for the very first time. Even the death of Manuel Pinto de Azevedo, in 1959, did not impede its development, despite the company having passed down to the patriarch’s son, Manuel Pinto de Azevedo Júnior, who had little time for the wine business. Despite this, the management of Quinta dos Murças remained the responsibility of José de Freitas Sampaio, until the mid-70s. As Manuel Pinto de Azevedo Júnior had no direct heirs, managing the family’s huge fortune after his death fell to his sister, Maria da Conceição, who governed the assets of Murças Limitada until her death in 1995. During that period, between 1978 and 1994, the person responsible for the quinta was João Nicolau de Almeida. At the time, the winemaker performed micro-vinification experiments that verified the suitability of vinha ao alto for producing top-quality wines and it was within this context that the first DOC Douro Quinta dos Murças appeared on the market in 1994. This was the situation encountered by the property’s heiress, Maria Antónia Pinto de Azevedo Mascarenhas, great granddaughter of Manuel Pinto de Azevedo, who ran Quinta dos Murças until it was acquired by the Esporão group, in 2008.