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Portugal is a country of vinous extremes. It has a diverse array of terroirs and grape varieties and an ancient winemaking history. Yet its story is often oversimplified, with a focus on the massive success of Portuguese fortified wines and the industrial upheaval that took place in the 20th century.
This guide focuses on Portugal’s dry wines. While it includes a general discussion of the country’s history, geography, climate, wine law, grapes, and regions, information relevant only to Portuguese fortified wines is omitted and will be addressed in a future expert guide to fortified wine.
Wine has been made in Portugal for thousands of years. Phoenician amphorae have been found along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Portugal in settlements that date back as far as 800 BCE. The legacy of the western Phoenicians is felt in Portugal even today, especially in Alentejo, where amphora (known locally as talha) winemaking still thrives.
Starting around 200 BCE, Portugal was conquered by the Roman Empire, and the Romans expanded winemaking efforts. They planted heavily in Lusitania, a Roman district that extended from the Tagus River to the Douro River. The Romans also likely introduced the first serious plantings of vinifera in Gallaecia, the Roman administrative district that covered the area from the Douro River north to the Atlantic.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Portugal was briefly occupied by Germanic tribes before being assimilated into the Islamic empire in the eighth century CE. Despite Islam’s prohibition on alcohol, wine production did not suffer significantly.
In general, the northern part of Portugal was planted by the Cistercians, and the southern aspect was planted by the Phoenicians and expanded on and commercialized by the Romans. Notably, this divide between northern and southern Portugal is still felt deeply today. Those in the north and those in the south follow separate football teams, drink different beer, and rarely drink the other’s wines. This divide also highlights the remarkably minor distinctions between northern Portugal and Spanish Galicia, which have tremendous cultural similarities. The Galician language is much closer to modern-day Portuguese than it is to Spanish.
The event that cemented Portugal as a wine-producing powerhouse in Europe was the Reconquista, or the Christian “retaking” of Spain and Portugal in the 11th and 12th centuries CE. As devout Christian practice spread across the Iberian Peninsula, the production of wine went from a matter of gastronomic and commercial desirability to a religious and social necessity.
To facilitate the expansion of wine production in Portugal as Christian immigration and conversion swelled, the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques (the son of Henry of Burgundy), relied on the expertise of the Cistercian monks. The Cistercian order was founded in 1098, and the monks quickly developed a reputation as some of Europe’s greatest farmers and craftsmen. The order entered Portugal in 1153 and spread along its Atlantic and northern borders, instilling its style of intensive viticulture and land management here, as it famously did in northern Europe. The network of the Cistercian order remained strong in Portugal well into the 19th century, continuing to support the progress of viticultural ideas and materials.
During the Reconquista, while monastic land ownership and wine production remained important, land was also distributed to the new nobility of Portugal. Often, land was given to knights as a reward, with the stipulation that one-fifth of the harvest be given to the kingdom as tax. These estates were called quintas, a name still used for wineries and vineyards in Portugal.
Portugal was arguably Europe’s first maritime colonial power. The Portuguese discovered the Canary Islands in 1336 (soon after, they ceded the territory to Spain), followed by Madeira in 1419 and the Azores in 1427. Planting grapevines was part of settling these areas. The islands, like Portugal, were strategically located between Europe, western Africa, and the Americas, and they would later become crucial harbors not just in Portugal’s maritime endeavors but for all of Europe. While Portugal’s colonial footprint shrank substantially in the 16th and 17th centuries, Portuguese wine remained part of the global colonial economy for centuries afterward, and the wines evolved to fit this global trade.
The evolution that occurred was largely that of fortification, or the addition of distilled spirit, first as a preservative to help the wines survive long maritime journeys, then as a stylistic preference for creating the rich, mellow, sweet wines that dominated the fine-wine market in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Douro River valley and Madeira are the most famous sources of these wines today, but historically the Azores, Carcavelos, and Setúbal were major producers of fortified wines as well.
Gradually, in these isolated, provincial areas where wine was made mostly for local consumption, vast commercial enterprises were developed, and they were run by what were essentially some of the world’s first multinational corporations. Shipping companies, primarily of British and Dutch origin, were created to purchase massive quantities of grapes or finished wines and to consolidate, fortify, and age the wines themselves.
It is no surprise that, given the international emphasis of certain Portuguese wine regions, Portugal was one of the first European countries to be exposed to the onslaught of American viticultural diseases that reached Europe in the mid-19th century. Oidium (powdery mildew) arrived in Portugal in 1845, downy mildew followed soon after, and phylloxera was first discovered in the Douro valley in 1862.
Phylloxera was slow to spread across the country, however, not reaching southern Alentejo, northern Vinho Verde, or the islands of Madeira and the Azores until the 1890s. Portuguese farmers were quick to adopt new methods to combat the aphid, and, by the late 1890s, American rootstock was widely embraced as an effective solution to the problem. The Portuguese government refocused on concerns about wine overproduction as early as 1895.
The exception to this was in the Azores. In the islands’ cool, humid climate, powdery mildew was an especially onerous problem, and the extremely rugged vineyards on many of the islands made replanting costly. This, combined with the near simultaneous decline of the whaling industry (of which the Azores were an important hub), caused economic devastation and severe depopulation on the islands. While the rest of Portugal recovered from phylloxera in a matter of decades or even years, the wine industry in the Azores is only now becoming more stable.
There were also several areas in Portugal where phylloxera never became particularly pernicious. Vineyards planted in sandy soils along the Atlantic coast, most famously in Colares, survived unscathed. Other areas, such as the most mountainous zones of Alentejo, Dão, and Trás-os-Montes, were so physically isolated and irregularly planted that phylloxera had a limited impact. As a result, Portugal has one of the greatest collections of centenarian and own-rooted vines in Europe.
Portugal had a distinct experience with fascism in the 20th century. The somewhat ironically named Estado Novo (New State) turned the country inward and aimed to stabilize and streamline—yet not modernize—the Portuguese economy. In the wine industry, this meant protecting, further regulating, and heavily taxing the established players of the Port and Madeira industries. António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal’s prime minister from 1932 to 1968, addressed the wine industry early in his time in government. In 1933, he created the Grémio dos Exportadores de Vinho do Porto (Exporter’s Guild). All Port producers had to belong to the guild, and it required each producer to have over 150,000 liters of Port in reserve and a lodge to age it, basically outlawing the production of Port by smaller growers. Major Portuguese wine companies during this era, including Sogrape (Mateus), José Maria da Fonseca (Lancers), and Aveleda (Casal Garcia), followed a similar model: buy cheap grapes from thousands of tiny farmers and commercialize the wines at a mass scale under large brands.
Wine regions that did not adhere to this corporate model were considered inefficient, and state-owned cooperatives were often created. Strict regulations made them more or less the only legal source of wine from these regions. In other areas, where the land was considered valuable for other endeavors, commercial vineyards were simply outlawed. Most vineyards in Alentejo, for example, were ripped up in favor of wheat, olive, and cork production. Today, many of the oldest vineyards of Alentejo are surrounded by olive and cork trees, planted to hide the vines from state inspectors.
Salazar actively resisted the creation of modern infrastructure in rural Portugal, and, even into the late 1970s, much of the Portuguese interior lacked electricity and modern plumbing. Modern pension and social services programs were never created for rural citizens. The legacy of this underdevelopment and economic isolation continues today. In many areas, vineyards are mostly worked by elderly people who have lived off the land their entire lives.
In regions such as Vinho Verde, Douro, and Madeira, most wine is still made by large companies that do not grow grapes. Even though the laws that mandated co-op production in areas including Dão have been repealed, it remains more common to farm grapes and sell them to the cooperative. The model of estate production of wine, from vine to bottle, is still being re-established in Portugal, and many of the longest-standing estates are just two generations old.
Portugal formally joined the European Union in 1986, greatly expanding Portuguese winemakers’ access to investment and modern winemaking equipment. Alentejo, largely a blank slate after the policies of the Salazar regime, was an area of particularly substantial investment and replanting.
For a period, it seemed that Portugal’s future would depend on the continued success of the fortified wine industry, along with large quantities of rich red wine from mostly French varieties in its southern interior. In the past 20 years, however, each of these sectors has peaked and begun to decline. Meanwhile, there is a renewed global interest in terroir-driven, distinctive wines. The established producers of the Portuguese wine industry have experimented with making ambitious, classically structured table wines to compete with wines from regions such as Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Barolo.
A shift in the underlying structure of the Portuguese wine industry has also begun, as the lack of regulation and relatively low costs of table wine production are allowing small farmers around the country to vinify and commercialize their own wines. Today, families who have been working their land and growing grapes for centuries are making their own wines, and, in the process, revealing indigenous varieties and traditional styles of winemaking that were previously unknown to the rest of the wine world.
In the 21st century, Portuguese wine production and exportation has shifted dramatically, from a focus on high-quality fortified and bulk still wine production, to an emphasis on small-scale, artisanal still wine production.
These changes are evident in the Portuguese wine landscape, with land under vine shrinking dramatically, from 246,000 hectares (608,000 acres) of vineyards in 2000 to 192,000 hectares (474,500 acres) in 2018, and registered wineries increasing, from 841 in 2011 to 1,364 in 2020.
The value of exports has also risen steadily, growing from US$817 million in 2015 to US$994 million in 2022. Today, Portugal is the ninth largest exporter of wine in the world, following Germany. This increase has overwhelmingly come from still wine. In 2002, fortified wines represented about one-third of Portuguese wine exports by volume and two-thirds by value. By 2011, fortified wine accounted for just under 50% of export value, and that percentage has been steadily decreasing since.
Although small, Portugal has an astoundingly diversity of climatic conditions and geologic formations. It features some of Europe’s mildest and warmest growing seasons, lowest- and highest-elevation vineyards, and poorest and richest soils. The rugged geography of the country also caused it to be both internally disconnected and isolated from the outside world for most of its history, leading to the development of various winemaking cultures as well as well-preserved ancient vineyards and vinous traditions.
This section includes generalizations around climate, yet climate change is causing conditions to shift. Maritime climates are becoming less reliably mild as ocean temperatures rise, and the diurnal swings of continental climates are becoming less extreme as nighttime temperatures rise faster than daytime temperatures. Growing seasons are also becoming drier, and rains that typically arrived in September are now much more sporadic or absent altogether.
Western Portugal is dominated by the Atlantic Ocean. Between Lisbon and Porto, the continental shelf nearly disappears, creating one of the deepest and coldest coastlines in Europe. The ocean constantly brings cold, humid air onto the mainland, while mountains to the east trap that air on the coast, insulate the region from extreme temperature swings, and create consistent morning fog. This stretch of land also sits on a giant vein of calcareous clay, with pockets of deep sand. The regions of Lisboa and Bairrada (Beira Atlântico) are located here.
North of Porto, the continental shelf extends farther into the ocean, slightly weakening the maritime influence of the coastline on Vinho Verde. The presence of mountains to the east, which have much higher peaks than the mountains farther south, results in a more extreme rain shadow and one of the wettest growing regions in Europe. The mountains of Vinho Verde are made mostly of granite, but there are veins of schist and sedimentary limestone at lower elevations.
East of the coast and north of the Tagus River, elevation rises dramatically. Giant granitic mountains dominate the interior of northern Portugal, with veins of schist at lower elevations. In the far north, vineyards can be found at over 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) in elevation. The soils of the mountains tend to be extremely poor, especially on the high slopes, and hydric stress is both a benefit and a challenge.
Historically, most of the highly regarded wine from the northern interior came from the mountains. In this area, there are subtle ocean influences, but grapes are protected from excessive moisture. Large diurnal temperature swings encourage ripeness, balanced acidity, and a more prominent fruit expression.
South of the Tagus River, the mountains of northern Portugal gradually recede. Here, in the vast savannah of Alentejo, subtle rolling planes and rich red clay soils provide perfect conditions for a diverse range of agricultural products, including grains, most of the world’s cork trees, and livestock.
Closer to the coast, or where larger hills or mountains allow for exposure to ocean breezes, there are viticultural areas yielding some of the most famous wines in the country. Even in these areas, however, extremely high temperatures are not uncommon during the growing season. The heat and rich soils tend to produce luscious and soft wines. Most of this area is within Alentejo, but regions at its periphery, such as Setúbal, Tejo, and Algarve, share many of its characteristics.
Portugal includes Madeira and the Azores, two of the three major Atlantic island archipelagoes that produce grapes. Despite being about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) apart, these islands share important qualities that make them exciting wine regions: an extreme maritime climate and volcanic soils.
Madeira and the Azores are temperate, with high levels of moisture and temperatures typically between 10 and 25 degrees Celsius (50 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit), occasionally higher in recent years. This results in long growing seasons and moderate levels of alcohol (in Madeira, this refers to base wines).
While Douro is considered one of the first demarcated wine regions in the world, recognized in 1756, Portugal was slow to establish a national system of nested regional designations akin to those of the rest of Europe. It was not until Portugal entered the EU, in 1986, that it formally adopted the pyramid-like appellation system it has today.
Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC) is at the top of the quality pyramid. This designation theoretically has restrictive rules regarding geographic, varietal, and stylistic boundaries, but many DOCs are liberal in the interpretation of historic styles. This is almost certainly partly because of the relatively recent rise of dry wines in many places where fortified wines had been dominant. There are 31 DOCs in Portugal.
Underneath DOC is Vinho Regional (VR, equivalent to the general European IGP). This designation tends to cover wider geographical areas and often permits international varieties. In several regions, however, producers often label their wines as VR rather than DOC for reasons that reflect the internal politics and regulatory eccentricities of respective governing bodies more than any geographic reality or explicit deviations from historic styles. Many producers in Lisboa, Alentejo (Alentejano VR), and Bairrada (Beiras VR, Beira Atlântico VR), in particular, often declassify their wines. For Portuguese wine, whether organizing inventory or speaking to guests, it is worth researching the specific origins and details of a wine rather than relying on regional designations.
The widest and most permissive category in Portuguese wine is Vinho de Mesa, or table wine. As in other European countries, these table wines cannot display varietal contents, vintage dates, or geographic specificity other than simply “Portugal.”
In 2017, the Portuguese government published the Catálogo Nacional de Variedades de Videira, which identified 262 indigenous varieties in Portugal. Most wines in Portugal, however, are made with relatively few of those grapes. According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, about 55% of the grapevine acreage in Portugal is planted to just 10 varieties. The classic wines of coastal Portugal tend to be either monovarietal or blends of two or three different varieties, and modern trends are pushing eastern regions that traditionally made complicated blends toward monovarietal bottlings.
The traditional field-blend wines of mountainous Portugal, which might include dozens of varieties, now account for a relatively small percentage of the country’s production. These wines are often thrilling, coming from ancient vineyards on isolated mountaintops, but are best understood in terms beyond their varietal composition.
This section focuses on the most common indigenous and culturally significant varieties in Portugal. In addition to these varieties, French and international grapes are planted throughout the country, including Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon in Alentejo, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Bairrada, and Sauvignon Blanc in Lisboa. Many Portuguese grapes are, confusingly, called by multiple names even within the country. Common synonyms that are used in Portugal or elsewhere are included in parentheses.
This section continues this guide’s focus on the dry wines of Portugal, thus excluding otherwise important varieties that are used almost exclusively in fortified wines.
Alvarinho (Albariño): Often thought of as a Spanish variety, Alvarinho likely originated on the border of Portugal and Spain, where southern Galicia meets the Minho River and northern Vinho Verde. It is midbudding and midripening, with relatively thick skins, but it is still susceptible to downy and powdery mildew. Alvarinho can display a range of flavors, though citrus and stone fruits, as well as herbal and floral tones, are most typical.
Today, the grape is most famously known in Portugal for the varietal wines of Monção e Melgaço, in the mountains of northeastern Vinho Verde. Here, Alvarinho tends to reach a slightly greater degree of ripeness than the more coastal plantings in Rías Baixas, across the border, expressing more florality and riper fruit than its Spanish twin. Because of Alvarinho’s commercial success, it is being planted more widely in Portugal, with producers in Lisboa and Alentejo experimenting with small plantings.
Antão Vaz: Antão Vaz is an ancient variety, most likely originating in the southern Alentejo region of Vidigueira. It is increasingly spreading throughout Alentejo because of its vigor and resistance to most diseases. If picked early, it can retain excellent acidity and tart tropical fruit flavors. It is particularly important as a prominent blending component in the talha wines of Vidigueira.
Arinto (Pedernã): Arinto is a very old variety that can be found along the coast of Portugal, although its most famous home (and probably where it originates) is the Bucelas subzone, in Lisboa. Arinto is a late-budding, late-ripening variety with very prominent acidity. It has medium-size, tight bunches that are susceptible to botrytis. Arinto can display a wide range of fruit flavors, from lemon and lime at lower levels of ripeness to stone fruit and melon in warmer climates. Varietal and blended examples are traditional in Lisboa, and Arinto has long been featured in blended wines of Bairrada and Vinho Verde. Great examples can easily age for 20 to 30 years. Arinto is increasingly found in Tejo and Alentejo, and it is prized for its ability to maintain its acidity in these warmer climates.
Bical: Bical is an important variety in Bairrada, although it was once relatively common in Dão as well. It is an early-budding, early-ripening grape, and the best examples are planted in cooler sites to slow ripening and keep alcohol levels low. Peachy stone-fruited aromas often round out Bical’s very mineral profile. The variety is frequently blended with Maria Gomes and Cercial in both the white and sparkling wines of Bairrada, and varietal examples are becoming more common.
Cercial (Cerceal): A very high-acid variety, Cercial is grown throughout northern Portugal, and most prominently in Bairrada, where it is spelled with an i, and Dão and Douro, where it is spelled with an e. Long thought to be separate varieties, they were confirmed by recent DNA testing to be the same. Historically, Cercial was included in the blended wines of these regions to contribute acidity and mineral flavors; today, it is increasingly being made into varietal examples, especially in Bairrada. Cercial often displays stone-fruited aromas, intense chalky minerality, and even gasoline-like flavors with age.
Encruzado: Encruzado is the dominant grape in Dão, especially for wines made intentionally for gastronomy and export. It is an early- to midripening variety, and carefully farmed fruit will produce wines of broad texture and elevated acidity, with complex flavors that include citrus and pomaceous fruit, rose, and flint. Increasingly, Encruzado is being fermented and aged in French barrels and made in a Burgundian style. Traditionally, it was blended with many varieties; today, it is often paired with only a few or bottled varietally.
Fernão Pires (Maria Gomes): The most widely planted white grape variety in Portugal, Fernão Pires is planted extensively in Bairrada, Lisboa, and Tejo. The variety is early budding and early ripening. It can be very aromatic, with strong citrus and floral flavors. With its short growing season, vigor, and lively aromas, Fernão Pires is a popular blending component throughout coastal and southern Portugal, but because its acidity tends to drop quickly toward the end of ripening, the variety has rarely been considered suitable for varietal wines. Increasingly, however, winemakers are discovering that, if picked sufficiently early, Fernão Pires can yield fresh and juicy varietal wines.
Gouveio (Godello): While the Gouveio variety is most often associated with Spain (there called Godello), there are records of its planting in Douro as far back as the 16th century, and the total planted area in Spain and Portugal is roughly equal. Gouveio is a relatively early-ripening variety and can produce high sugar while retaining moderate acidity and minerality. Although varietal examples of Gouveio are rare in Portugal, it is an important component of both the table and fortified white wines of Douro.
Loureiro: Loureiro is the most widely planted variety in Vinho Verde, yet the most impressive examples are made in the coastal zone of Vale do Lima. Loureiro is Portuguese for “laurel,” and the grape is so named because the berries have an aroma similar to that of the flowers and leaves of the laurel tree (dried laurel leaves are better known as bay leaf). Midbudding and early-ripening, with pronounced acidity, Loureiro can be very floral and citrus driven in flavor, with an intense mineral backbone, especially in examples from vineyards near the coast. Because of its deep flavors and short growing season, it is the most important blending component for the inexpensive, spritzy wines of Vinho Verde, but varietal examples from Lima can be of high quality.
Malvasia Fina (Boal): Malvasia Fina is found throughout the northern interior of Portugal but most prominently in Douro and Dão. It is also an important grape variety in Madeira (and slightly less so in the Azores), where it is known as Boal and used for fortified wines. It is late budding, vigorous, and fairly resistant to many diseases. It can produce a significant amount of sugar but starts to lose acidity relatively early in the ripening cycle. Malvasia Fina is often included in the blended white wines of Douro and Dão, where it is used to add texture and nutty complexity, but it is rarely made as a varietal wine.
Rabigato: With its high acidity and sugar, Rabigato is one of the most important varieties for white fortified wines in the Douro valley. It has also, in the past few decades, become appreciated for its ability to produce balanced, complex table wines, most importantly as a part of blends but increasingly in varietal examples. It is citrusy, floral, and herbal, with a pronounced smoky mineral expression.
Síria (Roupeiro, Códega, Dona Branca): Síria grows widely across the eastern half of Portugal, from Trás-os-Montes in the north to Algarve in the south. It features prominently in blended wines from the interior and is the second most planted white variety in the country. Síria is highly productive and has notable floral and melon, stone, and tropical fruit aromas and flavors. It often has relatively low acidity and moderate sugar content, likely because it is generally considered a workhorse variety and cropped heavily.
Sercial (Arinto dos Açores, Esgana Cão): Sercial is a very high-acid, relatively productive variety that is fairly resistant to downy and powdery mildew. It is best known for wines from Portugal’s islands. In Madeira, it is used to make the driest fortified wines of the region. It is also the most planted grape variety in the Azores (where it is known as Arinto dos Açores), most notably on Pico Island, where it is used for both blended and varietal dry wines that have high acidity and minerality and are richly textured. It is also planted on the mainland (where it is known as Esgana Cão), mostly in Bucelas, Lisboa, where it is typically blended rather than bottled varietally.
Alicante Bouschet (Alicante): Alicante Bouschet (often simply called Alicante) was developed in France by the grape breeder Henri Bouschet in 1855. It is a tenturier variety and was planted widely in southern France and Spain after phylloxera.
Portugal has a relatively small percentage of the world’s plantings of Alicante, and while the grape is often used to add color to bulk wines in Spain and France, in Portugal it is a key component of ambitious wines intended for aging. Alicante is one of the most important varieties in northern Alentejo, where it is often blended into dark-fruited, complex wines. It is also planted in smaller quantities in Tejo and Lisboa.
Aragonez (Tinta Roriz, Tempranillo): Aragonez (Tempranillo in Spain) has been cultivated in Portugal for centuries and is the country’s most planted variety. It can be found throughout Portugal’s wine regions, but it is most prominent in the interior, notably in Alentejo and in Dão and Douro, where it is known as Tinta Roriz.
Portuguese styles of Aragonez vary based on geography and climate. In Douro and Alentejo, two of Portugal’s hottest climates, the grape tends to excel in cooler sites and is used to add acidity and spice notes to blended wines, both dry and fortified. In Dão, there are both blended and varietal examples. The latter can be relatively similar to bottlings from Rioja, with notable red-fruited and herbal flavors.
Baga: Baga is the key red grape of Bairrada and is almost exclusively found there, producing some of the most distinctive and long-lived wines in Portugal. It is a vigorous, late-ripening variety. Historically, it had a reputation for making astringent, thin wines, but climate change has helped limit yields, warmed the growing season, and made the once-typical September rains far less consistent. Modern Baga wines are typically full fruited yet structured, with prominent tannins and acidity.
Baga is sensitive to small differences in terroir, and winemaking approaches in Bairrada vary, so the wines reflect a range of styles. Baga can display notes of red and black fruit, red and purple flowers, smoky and salty minerality, and herbs. It is also used for the traditional method sparkling wines of Bairrada, in both blanc de noirs and rosé styles.
Baga used to be a prominent variety in Dão (where it likely originates), and it is still commonly found interplanted in older vineyards there, but it is not permitted in the DOC wines of the region.
Bastardo (Trousseau): Bastardo is a French variety (native to Jura, France, where it is known as Trousseau) and is still primarily thought of as such because of the prominence of Jura wines in the international market. But Bastardo has been planted in Portugal for centuries, and, though there are about 200 hectares (500 acres) planted in France, plantings are over five times higher in Portugal. Most are in Douro, where Bastardo was traditionally used in Port wine blends, but the variety is also relatively common in Dão, Beira Interior, and Trás-os-Montes. In these drier climates, Bastardo tends to produce examples that are darker and fuller fruited than those of France, yet with excellent balance and soft tannins. Dão, in particular, is starting to produce excellent varietal wines from Bastardo.
Castelão: Castelão is found mostly in the southern half of Portugal, though small plantings are virtually everywhere. It is an adaptable and vigorous variety, performing well in both the cooler, wetter climate of the coast and the arid heat of the interior. The flavors it produces can vary widely depending on where it is grown, ranging from juicy and delicate to heady, dark fruited, and spicy. Castelão was traditionally blended, but varietal examples are appearing, especially in Lisboa and Setúbal.
Jaen (Mencía): Jaen is a newer grape to Portugal, where most plantings are in Dão. The clonal material in Portugal is much more limited and distinct from the Jaen that grows in Spain. Portuguese Jaen tends to be more delicate, red fruited, and juicy compared with examples from Spain (where it is known as Mencía). Jaen has historically been blended with other Dão varieties, such as Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz, but pretty, almost Pinot Noir–like varietal wines are being made from Jaen today as well.
Touriga Franca: The most planted red variety in Douro and Trás-os-Montes, Touriga Franca, is an easy-to-ripen grape that is fairly resistant to most diseases, with balanced sugar and acidity at ripeness. The wines tend to be red and purple fruited, floral, and subtly herbal, with relatively soft tannins for a Douro variety. Although treated as a workhorse variety for Port production, Touriga Franca is increasingly starring in blended table wines from Douro. Varietal expressions are also becoming more common.
Touriga Nacional: Touriga Nacional is planted all over Portugal, but the challenges of managing it and its lower yields result in modest acreage overall. It is originally from Dão but is most famous for its role in Port production in Douro. At lower levels of ripeness, Touriga Nacional can display aromas of bergamot, orange zest, rose petals, and graphite, yet structurally it can be intensely tannic and high in acidity, leading to a very astringent sensation. At higher levels of ripeness, those aromas can become subdued. Varietal examples vary widely in style.
From a quality perspective, Touriga Nacional is the most important blending component in the wines of Douro and Dão, and well-made examples can be exceptionally ageworthy. Touriga Nacional is also commonly found in Lisboa, Tejo, and Alentejo, where it is added to blends and made as a varietal wine. It is increasingly used for rosé wines.
Trincadeira (Tinta Amarela): Trincadeira, despite being challenging to grow, is widely planted in the interior of Portugal. It is very aromatic, offering fruit, floral, and spice notes. It can maintain high levels of acidity even at high sugar levels, and the wines are often richly textured yet energetic. Trincadeira is frequently blended into the Port and dry wines of Douro (where it is known as Tinta Amarela) and is a major component of the dry wines of Tejo and Alentejo. Producers in these latter regions are increasingly making varietal examples.
Vinhão (Sousão): Widely planted in northwestern Portugal, Vinhão is a dark-skinned variety that produces wines with very high acidity, intense red and black berry aromas, and a dark purple color. It is made as a varietal wine in Vinho Verde, where it is popular with locals. In Douro (where it is known as Sousão), it was historically used in Port production to intensify the color of the wine.
Minho VR and Vinho Verde DOC cover the same geographic area, which spans 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) of granitic mountains and hills, with several different climates, geographic zones, and wine cultures. Vinho Verde is the single largest producing DOC in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe, with 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of vines. Yet the name of the region has become synonymous with just one of its wine styles: low-alcohol, force-carbonated white blends.
Vinho Verde’s climate and geography can be considered through three groupings of subzones. Historically, the most important region for fine wine was Monção e Melgaço, in northeastern Vinho Verde, on the border of Galicia. Here, the Minho River and Serra d’Arga warm and protect the vineyards from the harsh Atlantic climate of the coast. Varietal Alvarinho wines from Monção offer a markedly distinct expression of place compared with many examples of Albariño from Rías Baixas.
The Lima, Cávado, and Ave valleys extend across Minho, with many vineyards at low elevations just a few kilometers from the Atlantic. The more coastal climate in this area results in cool to moderate temperatures during the growing season and significant rainfall. Loureiro, traditionally blended with Arinto or Trajadura, flourishes, and varietal examples are increasingly being produced.
The regions of Sousa, Basto, Amarante, Baião, and Paiva extend into Minho’s mountainous south and east and share similarities with the vineyards of Baixo Corgo. These regions produce most of Vinho Verde’s volume, especially its popular spritzy wines. Most of the red wines of Vinho Verde are produced here as well. Though rarely exported, red Vinho Verde is the preferred beverage of locals.
Vinho Verde was one of the first wine regions to be recognized by the Portuguese government. On September 18, 1908, the king of Portugal signed a declaration establishing seven wine regions: Bucelas, Colares, Carcavelos, Dão, Madeira, Moscatel de Setúbal, and Vinho Verde.
Historically, the industry in Vinho Verde functioned through big players, such as Aveleda, buying grapes from a vast number of tiny farmers. In the 1940s, when the Casal Garcia brand was created, there were an estimated 116,000 grapegrowers in Vinho Verde. By the end of the Salazar era, the number of farmers had dropped to around 70,000. Today, an estimated 16,000 remain. The makeup of the vineyard has also changed drastically. As global tastes shifted toward white wine consumption, the region followed suit. In what was once a majority red wine region, white grapes now account for over 80% of production.
In 1974, João António Cerdeira founded Soalheiro, in Monção e Melgaço, with the goal of focusing on the Alvarinho variety, which had always excelled in the region. Since then, the area’s high-elevation style of varietal Alvarinho has become recognized as one of the great white wines of Portugal. The Lima valley has also attracted attention for its highly aromatic, varietal Loureiro wines.
Minho VR allows for many varieties, only a small percentage of which are indigenous to the region, to be blended in any proportion. The wines may be white, red, or rosé, and may be still or carbonated between one and three bars of pressure. The minimum alcohol requirement is 8.5%.
Vinho Verde DOC focuses on a much smaller number of varieties, all traditional in the region. The wines can be white, red, or rosé, and darker-colored rosé wines may use the clarete designation. White grapes are permitted in red wine production, but any red wine with more than 15% white grapes must be labeled as palhete. Sparkling wines must be made in either the traditional or tank method. Late-harvest wines are also permitted.
Subregion-designate wines can highlight any of the permitted varieties except Alvarinho, which can only be varietally designated if it is also designated as originating from the Monção e Melgaço subregion or under the general DOC. A higher minimum alcohol of 11.5% is also required for Alvarinho to protect its style as a more concentrated, high-quality expression of Vinho Verde.
In general, Vinho Verde DOC has successfully focused on traditional categories and highlighted subregions while still permitting a variety of styles and producer preferences. As a result, virtually all the great wines of the region are labeled with the DOC or its subregions, which is rare in Portugal.
Trás-os-Montes, the most mountainous region in Portugal, sits alongside the northeastern border of the country. Here, the mountains of northern and eastern Portugal merge into a plateau-like formation, creating Portugal’s most extreme continental climate, with long, cold winters and very dry, hot summers. The soils vary between outcroppings of schist and granite, with schist soils found at much higher elevations than in Douro, to the south. The vineyards here are among Portugal’s highest, with some extending above 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) in elevation.
Trás-os-Montes is famous for its vast olive and chestnut groves. Recently, some of Portugal’s natural winemakers have begun experimenting with dried chestnut flowers as an antibacterial and antioxidative alternative to sulfur.
Trás-os-Montes is the home of Mateus Rosé, one of Portugal’s first great international success stories. This lightly colored, semisweet, and semisparkling red wine was initially produced because of the extremely cold winters of the region, in which the wines didn’t finish alcoholic fermentation before becoming dormant and being shipped. The success of Mateus Rosé made Sogrape, its owner, the largest producer of wine in the country. By the late 1980s, Sogrape accounted for almost 40% of Portugal’s table wine exports, at 3.25 million cases annually. But Sogrape’s success did not remain the success of Trás-os-Montes, as the company moved production of the wine to the more conveniently located Bairrada region in the 1970s and diversified beyond the brand as global tastes shifted toward drier, more robust styles of wine.
Today, a small resurgence is being fueled in the wine culture of Trás-os-Montes as consumers become more excited about lower-alcohol wines and practices such as high-elevation viticulture.
Trás-os-Montes was initially regulated under the Trás-os-Montes VR, which also included the dry wines made in the Douro River valley. In 2006, this framework was replaced by the Trás-os-Montes DOC, which highlights three distinct subzones, and Transmontano VR, a designation that excludes Douro, which received its own VR for dry wines.
Transmontano VR covers all dry wines made in the region—red, white, and rosé—and permits a huge range of varieties blended in any percentage. Trás-os-Montes DOC is more focused on the traditional varieties and styles of the region, though the number of varieties is still high, and there are no preferred varieties that must compose a majority of the blend. More than anything, however, this shows that many vineyards are still planted as traditional field blends. The three subzones of Chaves, Valpaços, and Planalto Mirandês have slightly different permitted varieties but, overall, similar regulations.
Douro, famous for its Port wines, yields the richest wines of Portugal’s northern interior, but there is significant diversity in geology and climate here, and high-quality wines are produced in a variety of styles.
The mountainous Douro River valley has a hypercontinental, arid climate, with annual rainfall as low as 300 millimeters (12 inches) per year. Until the mid-19th century, this area was not considered an ideal place to plant grapes, both because of its geographic isolation and because the schist soils of the lower Douro were hidden underneath granite outcroppings.
The heart of the Douro River valley is Cima Corgo. During the growing season, Cima Corgo is much warmer than other mountainous zones farther south, such as Dão or Távora-Varosa. This area has the greatest concentration of both schist slopes directly exposed to the warmth of the river and highly graded vineyards for fortified wine. Warm winds from the Spanish interior and Atlantic breezes pass through the area, creating balance in the fruit even at the very high levels of ripeness desired for Port production.
Baixo Corgo, to the west, has cooler days, more cloud cover, and more rain (900 millimeters, or 35.5 inches, per year on average) than the rest of the valley. While there is still quite a bit of schist here and reasonably well-graded Port vineyards, granite soils are more common, and production has traditionally focused on table wine.
Various tributaries along the river extend away from Douro to the north and south. Along these tributaries, elevation rises, and there are more east and west expositions as well as greater concentrations of granite in the soils. While these tributary vineyards were historically considered unimportant for Port production and graded poorly, today they are being reexamined as potentially exciting places to grow grapes for table wine.
The fortified wines of Douro were first “exported” in 1678, when a wine merchant from Liverpool visited the abbot of Lamego, a Cistercian monastery located along the Douro River, where fortified wine was being produced. The merchant shipped the wine back to England, finding that it had survived the journey in remarkably good condition. It is tempting to think of this as the definitive start of the Port wine industry, but it would be a long time before wine from Douro would resemble the sweet, fortified beverage known today.
Just a few decades later, England was once again at war with France, and purchasing French wine was becoming difficult. In 1703, Portugal and England signed the Methuen Treaty, which dramatically lowered duties on Portuguese wines imported to England. Portuguese wine began to flood the market. When English wine merchants went to Porto, they encountered the rustic red table wines of the Douro valley, which were often quite sour but robust enough to survive the journey back to England and serve as a replacement for Bordeaux.
Over the next century, Port evolved from a harsh table wine into the rich fortified wine it is known as today. In the first step of this process, British wine merchants traveled up the Douro River to take full control of the transport of the wines. The river valley was incredibly rugged and wild, but the merchants found better wine upstream that hadn’t been spoiled by poor storage and transport. They began to transport the wine downstream in their own barrels and experimented with fortifying finished wines with brandy, greatly improving the quality of the wine that arrived in Britain. Port wine experienced a rapid rise in popularity among British consumers, but producers elsewhere in Portugal soon attempted to take advantage of the market with lower-quality, counterfeit wines.
To tackle these two problems—foreign control of an increasingly successful industry, and the long-term dangers of inferior counterfeits—the Portuguese government intervened. In 1756, the Marquis de Pombal (Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello), who was a former ambassador to Britain and the prime minister and de facto ruler of Portugal, established Companhia Geral da Agricultura dos Vinhos do Alto Douro, or, as the British knew it, Douro Wine Company. A central goal of this governing body was to take control (and revenue) of the Port wine industry back from the foreign shipping companies, but its more lasting impact was the introduction of regulations that standardized the quality and style of Port wines. The creation of Douro Wine Company is often cited as the establishment of one of the world’s first “official” wine regions.
Under the regulations of Douro Wine Company, the official boundaries of the Douro region were established, highlighting the importance of schist soils for high-quality grape production. Fertilizers and additives other than grapes were forbidden. The regulations even enlisted tasters to ensure that finished Port wines were fit for export. Douro Wine Company also created a monopoly on the sale of Portuguese brandy, a necessary ingredient in the fortification process of Port.
These regulations were revisited in the 20th century, when the Salazar government created, in 1933, new regulatory bodies to oversee the Port wine industry. The Casa do Douro regulated vineyards and grape production; the Instituto do Vinho do Porto oversaw Port production; and the Grémio dos Exportadores de Vinho do Porto regulated the international shipping of Port wine. These organizations further consolidated the Port wine industry, limiting the ability of small farmers to produce their own Port wines and concentrating production under relatively few shippers. Because of the lack of economic opportunity for small farmers, land accumulation was virtually impossible, and the effects of these policies are still deeply ingrained. Today, there are about 20,000 registered growers in Douro, with an average holding of less than two hectares (five acres).
In 1947, the agronomist Álvaro Moreira da Fonseca published an exhaustive classification of every vineyard in Douro. Each vineyard was graded from A (highest quality) to I (lowest quality), with points given for location, altitude, aspect and steepness of slope, soil type, vine-training methods, grape varieties, density of planting, and more. This classification is still used today. The higher the grade of the vineyard, the more Port wine the vineyard is permitted to produce. This amount, based on the quality of the vineyard and market conditions, is identified by a license known as the beneficio. The beneficio system is designed to ensure that the general quality of Port wine remains high while also limiting supply to protect prices.
In 1976, João Nicolau de Almeida (the son of Fernando) released a now-influential study on which grape varieties were best suited to Douro. He planted a dozen different varieties in each of the region’s subzones and vinified them over the course of five years. The study resulted in five top varieties: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Cão, Tinta Roriz, and Tinta Barroca. Since the study, these grapes have dominated new plantings.
Even as the reputation of the Douro valley as a fortified-wine region continued to grow, the idea of great Douro table wine was being considered. In the late 1930s, Fernando Nicolau de Almeida, the technical director of the Port house Porto Ferreira, traveled to Bordeaux and was inspired to create a Douro table wine that could compete with the first growths of France. Instead of looking for vineyards in Cima Corgo, Fernando went to Douro Superior, where the higher elevations and richer granite soils could produce grapes with more freshness. In 1952, he released the first vintage of Casa Ferreirinha Barca Velha, which remains one of Portugal’s most critically acclaimed and expensive wines, only made in the very best vintages.
Enthusiasm for producing high-quality Douro table wine grew once Portugal joined the EU and winemakers began traveling across Europe. Around the late 1980s, established Port houses, such as Niepoort, Quinta do Noval, Quinta do Crasto, and Quinta Vale D. Maria, started producing dry table wine. But established Port houses were not alone in doing so, as small growers, who had been forced to sell their grapes to the large Port houses because of regulations around Port production, began making estate-bottled wine. Ambitious upstarts without land, too, began making table wines. Over the past 30 years, production of dry table wine has increased dramatically; today, equal amounts of dry and fortified wines are produced in Douro for commercial sale. In 1998, Douro DOC was established.
The shift is impacting Douro in several ways. The highest-graded vineyard land for Port production is generally around the village of Pinhao, in central Cima Corgo, on south-facing, steep vineyards that have pure schist soils and the closest possible proximity to the river. Increasingly, however, winemakers seeking to produce great table wine are moving farther along various tributaries to higher elevations, slopes with northerly exposure, and more granitic soils, where grape ripening is slower, more evenly paced.
The beneficio system is also coming under increasing scrutiny. As the demand for fortified wine has decreased globally, farmers in Douro have witnessed a decline in the size of their beneficios. Because of the maturing table wine industry, farmers have a legitimate economic choice between growing grapes for Port and producing table wine. There is a rising illicit trade in Douro in which small growers sell their beneficios to larger Port houses, who want to keep their production of fortified wines high. This both undermines the economics behind fortified wine production, as the added costs lower the margins on a product with an already shrinking market share, and subsidizes the production of dry wine, artificially deflating prices. For a long time, changes in this system seemed unlikely, as it remained popular among the thousands of small growers in the region, but on September 5, 2023, the president of Portugal endorsed an open letter calling for reform that was signed by many of the country’s leading Port producers.
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Compiled by _____ (April 2024)
Edited by Stacy Ladenburger