AGUARDENTE QUINTA DA NORA
Deonilde e Ilídio Correia
FOLGA
282 955 492
37°14’17.02”N 8°38’28.22”W
The couple Deonilde and Ilídio Correia began making aguardente forty-five years ago after their marriage. Ilídio is not from the land of medronho but Deonilde already as a young girl would accompany her father when picking the fruit. The distillery, like the house where Deonilde has lived since she was six years old, is in a property called Várzea da Pedra Branca, in Folga, near the river Arão. Like other distilleries, in this distillery too abundance of water and the existence of a waterwheel were very important in the times when there was no running water as they simplified the condensation process of the vapours produced in the boiler where the fruit was boiled. Those who didn’t have any water close by were obliged to carry it in pitchers on their backs or on a donkey.
But with the exception of the location, which is the same as always, and the festivities, which continue to be eventful at the time of the distillation, in the original cellar everything was different from the immaculate white of the present one. The walls were made of dried earth and the only light there came from the lanterns. Memories of bygone days that the owners of Quinta da Nora like to tell.