Emídio Fortuna, the oldest of nine children, started working at a local cellar at a very young age. Since his early years he learned how to prepare the batches of wine and spirituous beverages in the cellar.
When, in 1950, he acquired the recipe and the assets of the Arrabidine liqueur, he registered it as it is know today: Arrabidine – the Secret of Arrábida’s Monks.

This was just the beginning of a life filled with experiences. His entrepreneurial bold spirit and curiosity caused the production of liqueurs to become a parallel family and entrepreneurial activity [given the main activity were soft drinks], until the mid-1980’s, when Arrabidine started being produced only for Personal Reserve.

His children and grandchildren carried on making and enjoying the liqueurs as a family, getting to know the different tones of each nectar and to value them, discovering the history they told and making them part of their life and reality. And they wanted more; they wanted to share them with more people to let them know these liqueurs, stories and realities.