Wherever you travel in Portugal you’re never far from a hearty dish of bacalhau (salt cod). The Portuguese adore the stuff, and say they have 365 ways of preparing it – one for each day of the year. The matter of which wine to drink with it is a favourite discussion, and locals usually decide that red is best. Just as well, as Portugal is mainly red wine country. Everyone is familiar with the country’s port wines, its most famous export. But Portugal’s non-fortified red wines are more of a mystery to UK quaffers. This is an oversight that needs rectifying; we’re missing some great varieties.
If you’re a white wine lover, don’t despair. The northwest corner of Portugal caters for you, with the crisp, refreshing vinho verde whites (verde may translate literally as green, but means young in this wine context). There are other good modern whites and rosés up and down the country, too, from Portugal’s astonishingly varied climate and soils. You’ll also find great pudding wines, and very gluggable sparkling wines.
But it’s with reds – bright and mineral, smooth and generous, or poised and elegant – that Portugal excels. Across the region, the wines have their own Portuguese spectrum of flavours, as many of them are made from an array of Portuguese grapes that are found nowhere else in the world.
North
The verdant Minho is vinho verde country, and the port wines of the Douro are famous the world over, but the area makes powerful, new-generation reds and subtle whites, too.
Vinho verde and the Douro
It’s fitting that the lush green Minho should be the source of vinho verde. The complex, aromatic Alvarinho grape rules the north of the region and the gently scented Loureiro dominates elsewhere. Vinho verde is refreshingly crisp and lowish in alcohol, so it’s perfect summer wine. Here, as in the rest of Portugal, some producers follow the local DOC rules and others follow more flexible regulations to make VR (Vinho Regional) wines, a step down the wine hierarchy but often just as good.
The Douro has port and unfortified reds to its credit, produced from dramatically sloping, terraced vineyards. World-famous, the various port wines include splendid vintage ports; aged tawny ports with their nutty complexity; also LBV and ruby, with their forthright fruit.
Port is fortified with neutral grape brandy, which stops the fermentation, so it is always sweet, because of its residual, unfermented sugar. Visit the port cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the Douro river from Porto, for tours and tastings.
The new-style Douro reds are powerful, even though they are unfortified, making the most of the great grapes of northern Portugal: aromatic Touriga Nacional; floral, velvety Touriga Franca; easy, red-fruited Tinta Roriz (known as Tempranillo in Spain); and many other varieties. There are also subtle Douro whites, made in old white-grape vineyards planted for white port, up on the hilltops where conditions are too cool to ripen red grapes.
Centre
Try a red Bairrada with your suckling pig, savour local bubbly, and on the Estremaduran coast, wash down seafood with a fresh white.
Bairrada, Dao the Beiras and Estremadura
Between Porto and Lisbon, stop for leitäo (suckling pig) in Bairrada, where they make very drinkable bubbly (mainly from the Maria Gomes grape) and age-worthy whites from Arinto and Bical. However the best known Bairradas are reds. Traditionally they are made from the Baga grape but, as this only ripens four years in ten, the rules were changed in 2003, so modern red Bairradas are as likely to be made of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.
Travel east to Däo, land of brisk whites and lively, mineral reds, and you move from sandy coastal soils to the granite interior. Vines are grown in clearings on the pine-clad hills to shield them from fierce winds. Acidities rise with altitude, as the Däo vineyards climb into the foothills of the Serra da Estrela.
South of Däo, on the coast, is Estremadura, with nine wine regions and lots of windmills. The best wines are elegant reds and fresh whites from inland Alenquer, steely whites from Bucelas and interesting fizz from Óbidos, near the coast. The seafood around here is also superb.
South
Soft reds, sweet Moscatel, gluggable whites and, last but not least, the inimitable wines of Madeira.
Ribatejo, Setúbal, Alentejo, Algarve and Madeira
Ribatejo, the valley of the river Tagus (‘Tejo’ in Portuguese) produces horses, bulls, fruit, vegetables and vines. The best wines are made away from the fertile, alluvial soil of the river – mostly soft, easy-drinking reds.
Just south of Lisbon is the Setúbal Peninsula, home to a sweet wine, the Moscatel-based, fortified Setúbal. Palmela and Terras do Sado are two local cedary reds made mainly from the Casteläo grape. The Alentejo is Portugal’s hottest wine region, running from the cool granite mountains around Portalegre, down to meet the Algarve, where it simmers under the summer sun. The Alentejo plains are home to cereals, cork oaks, olives and vines. Black pigs munch acorns among oaks, and cattle feed in fields.
Both give some of Portugal’s best meat, which perfectly match the soft, generous reds of the region (try the J P Ramos Trincadeira 2006). Main grapes here are Aragonez, fruity Trincadeira and treacly Alicante Bouschet.
In the Algarve, the heat is moderated by sea breezes. Away from the touristy coast is a farming belt with avocado and citrus groves, and vineyards, which produce gluggable whites and rosés.
Madeira – a semi-tropical volcanic island off Morocco – is Portugal’s other serious wine location. Its wines are like no others, made from their own grapes (Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, Malvasia and Tinta Negra) and heated and oxidised until they can resist anything that time can throw at them. This makes them virtually ageless and, like so many other Portuguese examples, utter individuals in the ocean of wines.
Tagus Creek Grande Vinho 2006 Ribatejo
A fine blend, this red is juicy, ripe and slightly spicy.
£5.99* (usually £8.99)
Sogrape Duque de Viseu 2002/04 Däo
A soft and approachable wine with rich fruit flavours.
£4.39* (usually £5.49)
Sogrape Quinta de Azevedo 2006 Vinho Verde
A crisp, light wine made in the Vinho Verde region.
£4.39* (usually £5.49)
JM Fonseca Periquita 2005 Terras do Sado (red)
Supple, medium-bodied red from an Atlantic coastal area.
£3.99* (usually £4.99)
JM Fonseca Periquita 2006 Terras do Sado (white)
Modern, fresh white with delicate fruit notes.
£3.99* (usually £4.99)