Northern Portugal Flashcards

Question

Bairrada

Answer 1

Evolving dop wine region in northern Portugal (see map under portugal). The coastal belt south of oporto has been producing wine since Portugal gained independence from the Moors in the 10th century. By the early 1700s, Bairrada’s dark, tannic red wines were widely drunk in Britain, masquerading as or blended with port from the douro Valley to the north. Then in 1756, as part of his measures to protect the authenticity of port (see delimitation), the Marquis of Pombal, Portugal’s powerful prime minister, ordered that Bairrada’s vineyards should be uprooted. Despite the foundation in 1887 of the Escola Prática de Viticultura da Bairrada whose efforts to promote and develop the region included producing Portugal’s first méthode champenoise sparkling wine in 1890, it has taken Bairrada more than two centuries to recover. For the best part of the 20th century, the merchant bottlers (see négociants) and co-operatives that still dominate production churned out cheap bulk wines for Portugal’s African colonies. But this market collapsed in the wake of the 1974 revolution. Bairrada was awarded região demarcada (now dop) status in 1979. Tapping new, more demanding export markets required the merchant bottlers to exert greater control over fruit sourcing and production through the acquisition of vineyards, buying grapes (instead of wine), and investing in winemaking facilities. Most of Bairrada’s 2,000 growers own a very small area of vines even today, so most send their grapes either to a merchant or to one of the region’s three remaining co-operatives. Around 900 of them alone sell their fruit to sogrape for mateus rosé. Bairrada’s main quality impetus has come from the handful of dynamic individual winemaking estates that emerged in the 1980s and the successive wave that has reinforced its number. Stalwart supporters of traditional varieties, notably baga, have progressively tamed its worst excesses (fearsome tannins and acidity) by optimal vineyard site selection (warmer, better-drained calcareous-clay soils are best), trimming this productive grape’s yields, and gentler extraction. Others have taken advantage of dop rule changes which, from 2003, permitted blending with more approachable, popular varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir. These incomers (sometimes with a dash of white grapes) have successfully fleshed out Baga and have even produced some very promising wines in their own right, especially the Bordeaux varieties, which are well-suited to Bairrada’s maritime climate. Keen to reinforce the region’s traditional varieties Baga, Maria Gomes, and Bical, from 2009 leading estate Luis Pato began once again to label its top wines Bairrada (as opposed to bottling all as Vinho Regional beiras). By 2014 Baga represented only 40% of land under vine (down from 90%), but those who remain committed to producing single varietal Baga are consistently making some of Portugal’s leading reds. While they retain the capacity to age in bottle for two decades or more, with riper, finer tannins and better fruit expression, modern Baga is broachable earlier than in the past. Filipa Pato even makes an elegant fortified Baga using the region’s and variety’s hallmark freshness to good effect. White grapes, mostly Maria Gomes (or fernão pires) and bical, once grown primarily by the merchants for traditional method sparkling wines, are increasingly valued by Bairrada’s leading individual estates which make some remarkably terroir-focused, almost Burgundian whites and, more recently, artisanal traditional method sparkling wines based on Baga. The Bussaco Palace Hotel owns a vineyard, Vinha da Mata, in Bairrada from which it has produced an impressively structured Baga-dominated red labelled VM since 2001. However, located on the cusp of Bairrada and Dão, it is best known for Buçaco red and white wines made from grapes sourced from both regions. Once regarded as some of the best table wines in Portugal, older vintages (dating back to the 1940s) are available only to guests dining at the hotel or one of its few associated establishments, apart from those few bottles that occasionally crop up at auction.

Answer 2

Portuguese dop named after the river which rises as the Duero in Spain (see ribera del duero) before turning south to form the frontier with portugal, then weaving west where it cleaves through the hard, granite mountains of northern Portugal before finally slipping past Oporto into the Atlantic swell (see maps under portugal and spain). Most famous as the source of the fortified wine port, the Douro Valley is also well known for the production of (unfortified) table wine labelled Douro DOP. First demarcated in 1756, making it one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions (see delimitation and portugal, history), the Douro Valley’s since-modified irregular outline corresponds closely with an outcrop of pre-Cambrian schist, which is hemmed in by granite. For over two centuries, the demarcation applied only to port, but in 1979 it was extended to include table wine. Although (poorly made) ‘blackstrap’ table wines dominated Douro production until usurped by port in the latter part of the 18th century, the first glimmer of the region’s true potential for table wines appeared when port shippers ferreira launched Barca Velha 1952, a red wine from the Douro Superior, upstream of the port heartland. Making table wines did not take hold, however, until the 1990s, following Portugal’s accession to the eu. This provided invaluable funds for research and new equipment. It also led to the demise of the port shippers’ de facto monopoly over exports, enabling estates to make and sell their own wine. In the spirit of Barca Velha, early efforts focused on ambitious, upmarket reds. But this century has seen the emergence of many a mid-priced and even entry-level Douro table wine as the number of port shippers and independent wine farms (quintas) making table wine has mushroomed. While quality is correspondingly more variable, the Douro still produces some of Portugal’s most consistent red wines. DOP wines are made from a single variety or, more typically, a blend of as many as 30 of the region’s 100-plus approved indigenous varieties, which are similar to those used for port. Should winemakers stray from the approved list, wines are labelled Vinho Regional Duriense. The region’s varietal versatility reflects the sheer diversity of the world’s largest mountain vineyard (about 250,000 ha/617,763 acres, of which 45,203 ha/111,197 acres are under vine), whose terroir has been more artfully exploited as a result of the increased focus on Douro DOP wine. Divided into three subregions (the easternmost Baixo or Lower Corgo, Cima or Upper Corgo, and the Douro Superior/Upper Douro which reaches the Spanish border), in general terms it is progressively warmer and drier towards the east. However, since the steep slopes extend from around 150 m to a substantially cooler 900 m elevation and face every which way (the Douro DOP not only tracks a 100 km stretch of the River Douro, but also the valleys of its tributaries), there is many an exception. The first decade of this century saw a sharper focus on fresh white wines sourced from higher sites often located on granite soils. Earlier picking and especially the use of older and larger oak barrels is also resulting in greater freshness and restraint among the better reds. The quest for individuation led some to question 1970s viticultural studies whose outcome was a shift away from the tradition of field blends towards varietally homogenous plantings of the supposedly superior red grape varieties, touriga nacional, tinta roriz, touriga franca, tinta barroca, and tinto cão—five were even mandatory for new vineyards planted under the 1982 Trás-os-Montes Integrated Rural Development Project (which encouraged the restructuring of over 3,700 ha of abandoned vineyards). Traditional varieties that have been planted once more include tinta francisca, Donzelinho Tinto, Touriga Brasileira, Folgasão, and also Sousão (which is prized for its high acidity). For whites (mostly from old field blends), key varieties include rabigato, côdega do larinho, viosinho, gouveio, malvasia Fina, and arinto.

Answer 3

Former name of tejo in Portugal.

Northern Portugal Flashcards

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