Wine region
Douro
The Douro valley in northern Portugal: terraced vines on schist, Port and powerful reds from Touriga Nacional, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2001.
- Vineyard area
- about 40,000 hectares; UNESCO core zone about 24,600 hectares
- Main grapes
- red: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão; white: Gouveio, Rabigato, Viosinho
- Climate and soils
- continental: hot, dry summers, cold winters; schist, for table wine often granite
- Signature wines
- Port (Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, white), red and white wines of the Douro DOC
- Landmark
- terraced landscape of the Alto Douro, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2001; Port region demarcated in 1756
The Douro valley in northern Portugal is the home of Port and one of the most striking wine landscapes in the world. The river that is called Duero in Spain and runs through Ribera del Duero winds through deep gorges in Portugal all the way to Porto. The vines stand on steep schist slopes, on terraces held up by schist walls or on broader modern embankments. UNESCO made the Alto Douro wine region a World Heritage site in 2001, six years before the Lavaux terraces on Lake Geneva. In all, the valley has about 40,000 hectares of vines.
The Marão and Montemuro mountains shelter the valley from the Atlantic: summers are hot and dry, winters cold. Going upriver, the area divides into three parts. In the western Baixo Corgo it rains most; in the middle, in the Cima Corgo around Pinhão, most of the famous quintas are found; and in the eastern Douro Superior, up to the Spanish border, it is hottest and driest.
A royal charter of 1756 under the Marquis of Pombal fixed the boundaries of the Port region, which, after Chianti and Tokaj, makes it one of the first formally demarcated wine regions in the world. Port is made by stopping fermentation with neutral grape spirit: part of the sugar remains and alcohol rises to about 19 to 22 per cent. The casks traditionally rest in Vila Nova de Gaia, opposite Porto; British merchants made the wine famous after the Methuen Treaty of 1703. The main categories are Ruby and Tawny. Tawny ages in wooden casks and is often sold with an age statement of 10, 20 or 30 years; Vintage goes into bottle after two to three years in cask and continues to age there. White Port and rosé, which has existed only since 2008, complete the range.
More than a hundred grape varieties are permitted, and five shape the plantings: Touriga Nacional (the most prized), Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Tinta Barroca and Tinto Cão. Port is mostly grown on schist, table wine often on granite. Portugal’s entry into the EEC, today’s EU, in 1986 ended the lodges’ monopoly in Gaia, and growers could bottle their own wine; today the valley makes roughly as much still wine as Port. The red Douro DOC wines are powerful and dark-fruited; the whites come from varieties such as Gouveio, Rabigato, Viosinho and Malvasia Fina.
What to drink: Ruby and Vintage with blue cheese such as Stilton; Tawny with nuts, almond pastries or crème brûlée, young and chilled also as an aperitif; white Port with tonic; a red Douro with braised meat, game or lamb.