Portugal - Wines
Portugal is a paradox. This seafaring nation perched on the bow of Europe helped to discover much of the New World. Today, relieved of the burden of an overseas empire, Portugal is a small, sedate country clinging firmly to the Old World. Cross her borders and you take a step back in time.
Portugal's wine
industry reflects this. Her winemakers belong to the old school of rustic
charm. Anyone searching for disinfected, high-tech flavors should look
elsewhere; the Portuguese old guard have so far resisted the
Cabernet/Chardonnay bandwagon that seems to be rolling uncontrollably through
the world's main wine-producing regions, and have stuck loyally to their
indigenous grape varieties. With a big improvement in the standard of
winemaking helped by entry into the European Community, the treasures that
Portugal once kept for herself are now being slowly released for the outside
world to see, smell and taste.Portugal is, however, the home of one of the greatest international wine success stories in recent years. Slightly fizzy, not too sweet or dry, rosé caught the imagination of a new band of wine drinkers after World War II and brands like Mateus and Lancers took off. Such wines are not much drunk in Portugal, but sales of rosé continue to be about half of all Portugal's table wine exports.
This small rectangle of land, 560 kilometers/348 miles long and no more than 200 kilometers/125 miles wide, is full of contrasts. Imagine a rich, fiery glass of Port and a crisp, fresh Vinho Verde. No two wines could be more different. Yet they are produced in adjoining regions. Climate plays a part. The wines produced on Portugal's flat, fertile littoral are much influenced by the moderating effect of the Atlantic. The climate becomes more extreme, with baking summers and biting winters, the closer one comes to the Spanish border.
Vines cover Portugal from the Minho River
in the north to the Algarve coast in the south. There are nearly 400,000
hectares/1 million acres of vineyards, making Portugal the world's seventh
largest wine producing country. It is divided up into forty-one officially
recognized winemaking regions with a top tier of thirteen regions. Until
Portugal settles on one or the other term, these may describe themselves as
Região Demarcada (R.D.) or Denominacão de Origen Controlada (D.O.C.). The two
terms are roughly equal to the French Appellation Contrôlée. There is a
second, new string of twenty-eight areas, each with the title of Indicacão de
Proveniencia Regulamentada (I.P.R.). These are candidates for promotion to
R.D. status, but it seems doubtful whether many of them will make the
grade.Vinho Verde, Portugal's largest demarcated wine region, covers the entire northwestern corner of the country. The landscape is a riot of vegetation, like a kitchen garden run wild. Vines clamber everywhere; up houses, trees and over specially constructed pergolas. This is the part of Portugal that makes crackling "green wine." Vinho Verde can be either red or white. Both are equally acidic and often have a slight effervescence. Red Vinho Verde, which still amounts to about half the region's total output, is ink black with the rasping astringency of sandpaper. White Vinho Verde is aromatic, naturally bone dry and austere. It is usually sweetened to make it more attractive in export markets. Good commercial brands include Gazela and Casal Garcia, but the single-estate (quinta) wines made from either Alvarinho or Loureiro grapes have more character.
The Douro River bisects the hard, northern mountains and lends its name to the demarcated region famous for Port and increasingly well known for table wine. Our ancestors used to call these deep, dark, tannic reds "blackstrap," but new methods are helping to make something softer and more approachable from Port grapes. Ferreira's Barca Velha is one of Portugal's best reds but is expensive and difficult to find. Quinta do Côtto Grande Escolha is excellent and more affordable.
Dão, enveloped by
the high granite mountains south of the Douro, is the home of Portugal's
best-known red table wine. Standards have slipped owing to shoddy winemaking
over recent years and many wines taste hard and lean. The Vinicola do Vale do
Dão bottles good, spicy wine under the Grão Vasco label, and Caves São João
makes a deep, concentrated red, called Porta dos Cavaleiros, that ages
well.Grown on the heavy clay coastal soils south of Oporto, Bairrada tends to be more reliable. Reds are made predominantly from the Baga grape, which produces big, tannic wines packed with blackberry fruit. The best, from winemakers like Luis Pato and Caves São João, need time to soften, although lighter wines from Caves Aliança may be drunk young. Sogrape, the firm that popularized Mateus Rosé, also makes a fresh, aromatic dry white Bairrada.
South of Bairrada and the university city of Coimbra, the Oeste and the Ribatejo regions produce great quantities of jug wine as well as some of Portugal's best garrafeiras, the mature red wines selected from the cream of the crop. Caves Velhas and Carvalho, Ribeiro and Ferreira uphold the tradition.
Lisbon has all but absorbed three small wine regions near the Tagus estuary. Carcavelos has one vineyard and Colares, famous for its phylloxera-free Ramisco vines which grow in sand, has nearly disappeared. There is still a flicker of life in Bucelas, a small village making dry white wine from the acidic Arinto and Esgana Cão (or Dog Strangler) grapes.
The south of Portugal starts at the Tagus, where mountains
yield to a broad expanse of plain. The Setúbal Peninsula immediately south of
Lisbon is one of the country's most innovative wine regions largely because of
two firms: José Maria da Fonseca and João Pires. Both have benefited from New
World-inspired winemaking, although Portuguese grape varieties like Periquita
retain the upper hand. Setúbal itself is a demarcated region for a sweet
fortified wine made predominantly from Moscatel grapes.The Alentejo, south and east of Lisbon, is relatively new to commercial winemaking. Five wine-producing enclaves have recently been designated as I.P.R.s. Borba, Redondo and Reguengos de Monsaraz are the names to look out for on the labels of these vibrant, warming red wines. Last and almost certainly least comes the Algarve; a distinctly Old World player making flabby whites and hot climate reds..