Portuguese Wine
Besides the big two Portuguese wines - Port and Madeira - Portugal produces some other excellent wines.
Though lacking the international reputation of the best French and Italian wines, Portuguese wines are of a generally good standard. Portugal has over 100 varieties of its own indigenous grapes, with their own distinctive tastes and aromas. Portugal stands in 5th position in the world's major wine exporters, just ahead of South Africa and behind Italy, France, Spain and Australia. Mateus Rosé used to account for a large proportion of Portuguese wine exports and the medium-sweet frizzante rosé was supposedly the favorite tipple of the toppled Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.
Wine production in Portugal goes back to pre-Roman times, with the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Greeks all producing wine in the region, before the Romans increased production. Portuguese wines were exported to Italy in Roman times and to England from at least the 12th century.
Portugal also produces some excellent dry red wines from such indigenous grape varieties (castas) as Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca. The Alentejo region south of Lisbon is a good source of quaffable red wines.
Portuguese wines included reds (tinto), whites (branco) and vinhos verde, young, lightly sparkling, mainly white wines with some reds and the occasional rosé from the Minho region around Braga. Maduro is another classification meaning mature.
Wine Growing Regions
Portugal's main wine-producing regions include the Alentejo, Bairrada, Dão, Douro, Estremadura and Ribatejo. Colares wine is an expensive wine produced outside Lisbon between Sintra and Cabo da Roca. The Bairrada region produces red and white varieties and is known for its sparkling Conde de Cantanhede. The Douro Valley is most famous for port but also produces other red wines. There is expansive wine production on the hot plains of the Alentejo, most famous for its table wine. The Dão region is demarcated in the area between the Mondego and Dão Rivers in the north central Portugal and produces a number of fine reds. The Bairrada region north of Coimbra is known for its champagne-like espumantes naturais, designated bruto (very dry), seco (dry), meio seco (sweet) and doce (very sweet).
Quality wine produced in a specific region Vinho de Qualidade Produzido em Região Demarcada abbreviated as QWPSR or VQPRD make up Portugal's best wines. Other quality wines have Denominaçao de Origem Controlada (DOC) printed on the label. The next level down is Indicaçao de Provenência Regulamentada (IPR), these grapes are double-pressed and IPR wines are allowed a greater yield per hectare. Other varieties are regional wine or Vinho Regional and Vinho de Mesa (Table Wines).
Vinhos Verdes
Vinhos verdes, lit. "green wines" refers to the age not the colour of these young, light, slightly sparkling wines produced mainly in the Minho region. The wines are drunk early as most do not mature and improve with age. Vinhos verdes combine well with seafood especially shellfish. There are both red and rosé varieties but white is the most common. Vinhos verdes de quinta are the highest quality, produced from a single winery.
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