Portugal Wine, a long tradition of wine making

History of Wine

Portugal Wine has a very old tradition that comes since the time of the Roman Empire. The most known are the Port Wines produced in the beautiful region of Douro. But today Portugal has wine production in all the country. There are special regions marked for their quality.

The more famous Portugal wine regions are Douro, Alentejo, Dão, Bucelas and Peninsula of Setúbal.

If you are a Wine appreciator you will find the best Portuguese wine as good as the best International wines, although maybe not so famous.

Portugal produces many types of wine, sweet wine, white, red and green wines.

Vinho Verde

In this part of Portugal, in the northwest, near the Spanish region of Galiza, a unique type of wine is produced, the Vinho Verde, which means Green Wine. This really fresh wine is very good to drink in the summer hot weather. The best known is the Alvarinho wine.

Douro

Located in the North of Portugal, this is one of most important wine production regions in Portugal. Due to the quality but also for its history.

Port Wine

Douro region is one the oldest marked regions for wine production in the world. In 1756 it was settled the “Região Demarcada de Produção do Vinho do Porto”, assuring that way that the production was controlled and the quality assured. This represents the importance that Port Wine trade had at that time.

The main producers where mainly English emigrant families that start wine production like Croft, Cockburn's, Churchill's, Offley, Sandeman, Graham's, Taylor but also Portuguese and others like Ferreira, Fonseca, Ramos Pinto, Niepoort and Burmester among others.

Douro Wine

Although this region is known for its Port Wine, there are many Producers of regular Wine that have very good quality. The best known is Mateus, probably the more famous Portuguese wine after Port Wine.

The Douro region is today a region which is starting to get known for the tourism. The Wine Production, the splendid views of cliffs completely covered with vineyards along the Douro River and the diversified and tasty gastronomy are reasons enough for a unique experience.

Dão

This region is in the north of Portugal, near the city of Viseu. It has some very good wines known by the strong aroma and the smooth flavour. Some of the best current wine is from this area. Some examples are Casa de Santar and Quinta do Cabriz.

Alentejo

This region is one of the best of Portugal for wine production and one of the main reasons is the weather, which has perfect conditions for this industry. That’s why there are so many quality producers.

Because this region is very pleasant with wide landscapes, full of ancient villages together with the superb gastronomy, especially the known cheeses, it makes it one of the best places for “enoturismo”, which means wine tourism.

You can have visits to the wine sellers for wine tasting and other local specialities.

Bucelas

This region near Lisbon has some great white wines that are perfect to drink with seafood. These were initially discovered by Duke of Wellington after Peninsular War. Some of the best are Bucelas Prova Régia.

Setúbal

This is one of the oldest regions of Wine Making in Portugal. The moscatel wine and Periquita Wine are the best known in this regions near Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. This portugal wine is practically controlled by the José Maria da Fonseca Company who has the monopoly of its production.

Algarve

This touristic region is not a well known Wine region, although there are some old wines with limited production, like Guia. But in the last years some producers adventured in this industry. In fact, some of these wines are good quality wines and slowly new producers are starting wine production. Some of the best known are Barranco Longo and Vida Nova a wine produced by the British singer Sir Cliff Richard.