According to tradition, the name Pêra-Manca derives from the toponym “limp stone” [pedra manca] or “oscillating stone” – a granite formation of rounded blocks, unbalanced on firm rock.

History associates this name to the friars of the Espinheiro Convent in Évora, who owned vineyards in the 15th and 16th centuries, located in a place with many loose granite stones that oscillated.

Their wines would be very famous at the time, to the extent that Pedro Álvares Cabral took some barrels with him on the expedition that discovered Brazil.
This would be the wine, shared with the natives, that Pero Vaz de Caminha talks about in one of his letters.

History tells us that the tradition of Pêra-Manca dates back to the Middle Ages. History also tells that around 1365, Our Lady [Nossa Senhora] appeared to a shepherd on top of a thorn tree. Some years later, an oratory was built in her honour and in 1458, given the growing importance of the place as a place of pilgrimage, a church was built. The later foundation of a Convent, which came to house the Order of Saint Jerome followed. And in the 15th and 16th centuries, the vineyards of Pêra-Manca were owned by the friars of the Convent of Espinheiro, in Évora.

In 1517, the friars of the Espinheiro Convent were forced to rent these vineyards to Álvaro Azedo, the King’s squire, and his wife, Filipa Rodrigues. D. João II speaks of them in a letter to the Évora Chamber.

It was recovered in the 19th century by the prosperous Casa Soares, property of Counsellor José António d’Oliveira Soares, who transformed it into a sophisticated wine. However, following the phylloxera crisis, Casa Soares stopped producing Pêra-Manca. It was the heir of the extinct Casa Soares, José António de Oliveira Soares, who, in 1987, offered the name to the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation, which started using as its label an adaptation of an advertising poster designed by Roque Gameiro in the 18th century and gained worldwide renown and recognition, already being considered one of the great national brands.