Wineries In Portugal
Portuguese wine is the result of traditions introduced to the region by ancient civilizations, such as the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and mostly the Romans. Portugal started to export its wines to Rome during the Roman Empire. Modern exports developed with trade to England after the Methuen Treaty in 1703. From this commerce, a wide variety of wines started to be grown in Portugal. And, in 1758, one of the first wine-producing regions of the world, the Região Demarcada do Douro was created under the orientation of Marquis of Pombal, in the Douro Valley.
Portugal has two wine-producing regions protected by UNESCO as World Heritage: the Douro Valley Wine Region (Douro Vinhateiro) and Pico Island Wine Region (Ilha do Pico Vinhateira). Portugal has a big variety of local kinds, producing a very wide variety of different wines with distinctive personality.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
1. Lagoalva
The estate Quinta da Lagoalva is part of a region of unique natural beauty extended in the south bank of the river Tagus. It is located approximately 2kms from the town of Alpiarça and 11km from the city of Santarém. The long tradition of Quinta da Lagoalva as a wine producer was certified in 1888, in the Portuguese Industry Exhibition, in which was represented by 600 wooden casks.
The vines of Quinta da Lagoalva benefit from a modern system of production such as the wine cellar, that combines an effective winemaking process with a great versatility of oenological techniques, based on a constant dialogue between the “new world” model and traditional European methods. Therefore the wines of Quinta da Lagoalva are the result of a special combination between the unique philosophy of the producer and grape varieties with a distinctive personality due to the microclimate and the “terroir” of the region.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
2. Taylor’s Port
The wines of Quinta de Vargellas traditionally form the ‘backbone’ of the Taylor Vintage Port blend. This outstanding estate, recognised as one of the world’s finest vineyards, was acquired by Taylor’s in 1893 although its reputation as a source of the finest ports dates back to the 1820’s. Located in the remote eastern reaches of the Douro Valley, Vargellas is known for its elegant, scented wines, with their fine focused fruit and well integrated sinewy tannins. It is also known as a source of one of the rarest and most collectible vintage ports of all, Vargellas Vinha Velha, made in very small quantities from the produce of the oldest vines on the estate. The terraced plots containing the oldest vines on the property account for over 15% of the estate’s total production.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
3. Quinta do Noval
Quinta do Noval is an historic name with iconic status in the world of wine. But it is above all a vineyard. In the heart of the Douro Valley, great wines have been made in this place since the early 18th century. Known throughout the world for its Port wines, whether the Quinta do Noval Vintage Port made from a strict selection of the best wines from our 145 hectare vineyard, or the Quinta do Noval Nacional, extraordinary product of the tiny Nacional parcel at the heart of the property, or indeed our aged Tawny Ports and Colheitas, Quinta do Noval produces great wines that bear the stamp of their origin.
The subtle differences of aspect, climate and soil of the various parcels of this extensive vineyard give the wines of Noval complexity and depth that are unique to Quinta do Noval, whether we are making Port wines or unfortified red and white wines.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
4. W&J Graham’s Port
Graham’s has always been a pioneer. Graham’s was one of the first Port companies to invest in its own vineyards in Portugal’s Douro Valley in 1890 and is now at the cutting edge of innovation in winemaking techniques. Today, five Symington cousins share responsibility for every aspect of the company and personally make the Graham’s wines. They too have been involved with Port and the Douro for many generations, with ancestry dating back to the mid-17th century.e evolution of wine. These confidences found in each barrel, enhances the richness of our vines.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
5. Dow’s Port
Whilst the majority of Port is now made with modern methods using state-of-the-art vinification technology, a small proportion is still produced by the time-honoured method of treading. In either system, fermentations are relatively short (two to three days) because Port is a fortified wine. Fortification, which involves the addition of natural grape spirit to the fermenting juice, intentionally interrupts the fermentation process at a point when approximately half of the grapes’ natural sugar has been converted into alcohol. This accounts for Port’s characteristic rich, luscious style and also contributes to the wine’s considerable ageing potential. Given the short fermentation cycle it is crucial to extract as much flavour, colour and tannins as possible from the grape skins.
6.Fonseca Port
From the legendary 1840, Fonseca’s first Vintage Port release, to the superb declared vintages of the last decade, the house has produced a succession of highly acclaimed wines even in the most adverse moments of history. James Suckling, in his authoritative book on Vintage Port, put it as follows: ‘The vintage Ports of Fonseca are perhaps the most consistently great of them all. Not only do they have a striking fleshiness and powerful richness when young, but they retain that youthfulness for decades.
The unique terroir of each quinta contributes its own distinctive character to the Fonseca Vintage Port blend. Cruzeiro provides the dense core of black fruit and tannin. This is enveloped in the rich succulent jammy flavours and velvety texture of the wines of Panascal and overlaid by the exotic heady scents of Santo António. The fusion of the wines of these three diverse properties explains the multi-layered and multi-dimensional quality of Fonseca Vintage Ports and their ability to continue releasing surges of opulent complex aroma over decades of ageing in bottle.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
7. Quinta do Vesuvio
The winery at Vesúvio, built in 1827 and unchanged since then, is a testimony to a largely lost art of winemaking. Every year in the autumn men and women gather here in the cool of the evening to tread the grapes that they picked that day. It takes approximately 50 people to tread one lagar, a process that is conducted in two phases: first there is the “corte”, in which the treading team march rhythmically forward and backward in several lines, arms interlocked for at least two hours; this is followed by the “liberdade”, or liberty, when the treaders enjoy themselves, dancing and singing to the sounds of the local village band; they’re still treading, but randomly and leisurely.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
8. Cockburn
The story goes, that two British merchants travelling through Portugal’s Douro Valley in the seventeenth century came across the monks at a monastery near Lamego drinking a local wine with grape spirit added to it early in its fermentation so that the wine kept its natural sweetness. They decided to start shipping this wine back to Britain. The fortifying spirit helped to preserve the wine on its long sea voyage as well as giving it a unique sweet taste. This was embryonic Port. The same production methods are, more or less, still used today. In 1756 the Marquis of Pombal (Marquês de Pombal) drew the limits of the Douro region, creating the world’s first officially demarcated wine region. It is a region sculpted both by nature and by humans over centuries and is for this reason now recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
9. Quinta do Vale Meao
Great quality wines with different personalities. The result of dedication in all the methods and procedures. The Company’s main purpose is to uphold the originality and complexity of the Quinta wines by exploring, to the utmost, the combination of the different traditional Douro varietals grown in separate blocks in the vineyards and the different styles that result from the geological variations of the soil.
At Quinta do Vale Meão preference is given to combining traditional winemaking methods in lagares with modern technologies. This is why the centuries-old Adega dos Novos winery was fully restored and totally re-equipped, taking care to preserve its fine architectural features and recuperate the imposing stone treading tanks. The Adega da Barca Velha wine lodge, reserved exclusively as a warehouse for Port, was reconstructed in 2007.
Discover more Portuguese wine on the best Wine online Expo!
10. Warre’s
Whilst the majority of Port is now made with modern methods using state-of-the-art vinification technology, a small proportion is still produced by the time-honoured method of treading. In either system, fermentation are relatively short (about two days) because Port is a fortified wine. Fortification, which involves the addition of natural grape spirit to the fermenting juice, intentionally interrupts the fermentation process at a point when approximately half of the grapes’ natural sugar has been converted into alcohol. This accounts for Port’s characteristic rich, luscious style and also contributes to the wine’s considerable ageing potential. Given the short fermentation cycle it is crucial to extract as much flavour, colour and tannins as possible from the grape skins.
