Wines of Portugal
- Phone
- 415-683-0696
- Website
- winesofportugal.info
- twitter.com/wptusa
- facebook.com/WinesOfPortugalUS
- sommelier@fullcirclewinesolutions.com
Wines of Portugal: A Treasure Chest of Diversity
No other country can match Portugal’s range of indigenous wine grape varieties, a rich palette for winemakers that goes back to the Bronze Age. Tartessians, Romans, and Phoenicians introduced winegrapes here, and viticulture eventually spread across Portugal’s diverse geography. Isolated from the rest of Europe, many unique wine varieties developed there as vines accustomed themselves to extremes in soil, weather and altitude.
Now, in a small country with over 250 unique, indigenous wine grape varieties to choose from, it is not surprising that Portuguese winemakers usually draw from a variety of grape sources to create balanced, flavorful blends. The result is that Portugal is blessed with a treasure chest of unique and distinctive wines.
Portuguese blends, with their distinctive combinations and unique character, reward people seeking diversity. These wines, at their best, often from small but distinct regions, combine ancient winemaking wisdom with the latest scientific and technical knowledge to put the wonder and pleasure back in wine.
Portuguese Winemaking
These are exciting times for Portuguese wines, as producers embrace sustainable winegrowing and modern winemaking techniques. A delicate balance between tradition and modernity has ushered in a new era of creativity in Portugal, the result of a quarter century of investment, education and enlightenment.
Alongside the co-ops and large companies, new, nimble boutique wineries are opening their doors, more willing and able to innovate and experiment. The country’s system of regional designations has been reorganized. Winemakers are now often university trained. International competition has sharpened incentives to think creatively. Integration with Europe has meant more exposure to new ideas, and better roads have opened up remote interior spaces to winegrowing.
Main Portuguese Wine Styles
Light-bodied whites
The cool, hilly, verdant north west of Portugal is the main source of a unique style of white wine with lowest alcohol and high, fresh acidity: Vinho Verde. Vinho Verde may be made from numerous grape varieties such as Alvarinho, some aromatic, some not, often a selection blended together. It may be dry or medium-dry.
Full-bodied whites
Higher in alcohol and richer in texture, these come from vineyards bathed in copious sun and high summer temperatures. There are soft, rich wines from the Alentejo, intense, minerally whites from the Douro, and full-bodied whites from Trás-os-Montes in the north east. The oak-ageing of top-of-range Reserve whites from Dão and Lisboa (and occasionally elsewhere) rounds them out to full-bodied status.
Rich, round full-bodied reds
Alentejo hot summers make ripening easy, and sweet grapes mean rich fruit and lots of body. Alentejo reds are made from a variable blend of grape varieties, including Trincadeira and Aragonez, Alicante Bouschet and Syrah, Touriga Nacional and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Robust reds
Serious, big and often firmly tannic in their first few years of life, top Douro reds nevertheless have their own robust style of elegance, and often a complexity of flavor that comes from the mix of grapes, where old vines of mixed varieties are planted together. Trás-os-Montes is the wine region to the north of the Douro Valley, also mountainous, growing the same grapes and making big reds. Another source is Bairrada, made from Baga, which has full body as well as high acid and tannin, maturing to a softer, complex, savory, malty wine of great originality.
Elegant reds
Dão has perhaps the greatest concentration in Portugal of elegant reds; altitude is high, the soils granite, the climate cool, ripening slow. Fine-quality Touriga Nacional is blended with Tinta Roriz, Alfrocheiro, Jaen and other grapes to make intensely-flavored, perfumed reds with good acidity and lovely balance. The red wines of Palmela on the Península de Setúbal are elegant wines, made from Castelão, with complex, fruity flavors, good acidity and balanced tannins, ageing to a cedary character not unlike that of mature Cabernet Sauvignon.
Port Wine
The Port Wine is divided into three big families, White, Tawny and Ruby. The White Port offers a range of colors that can vary from pale white to amber. The Ruby family admits red tonality that extends from light red, to very dark red, almost black. The Tawny family usually extends from colors like auburn, copper and amber.
Madeira
All Madeira has a nutty, deliberately oxidized and slightly caramelized quality from wood-ageing under the influence of heat. Madeira ranges in sweetness from just off-dry to seriously sweet. In rising order of sweetness, these are: Sercial, Terrantez, Verdelho, Boal and Malvasia.