FOOD & DRINK
Raising a Glass Guido Andries has been retired in the Algarve for 18 years. All of his active professional life he was involved in food and beverages. He studied Viticulture at Brussels University and was vice president of catering services and hub operations at Brussels National Airport, providing millions of bottles of wine and champagne to 70 airway companies. He has written many articles in food and beverage magazines. After 2 ½ years of research, he has created a wine brochure which he is sharing with the readers of Tomorrow and which we will be serialising. The first article is on the history of Portuguese wines.
The History of Portuguese Wine Portugal is a vibrant and diversified country due to the very different types of soils and the large differences in climate types and temperatures from the north to the south. As a result, there is a large choice of 343 grapes (divided into 152 white and 191 red). Although winemaking in Portugal goes back to more than 2000 years BC, it’s only in recent history that significant events happened in this remarkable 191.633-hectare vineyard!
1353
Lisbon and Oporto negotiated a commercial treaty with England’s King Edward III.
1386
King João I of Portugal and Richard II from England signed the Treaty of Windsor guaranteeing military, political and economic collaboration.
1678
The abbot of Lamego monastery discovered that adding brandy allowed them to export better quality wines to England, therefore inventing fortified wines.
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1988
1689
France declared war on England, meaning that Portugal became the first supplier of wines for England.
1703
England and Portugal signed the Methuen Treaty. John Methuen concluded the treaty that bears his name, by which the exchange of port wine for English woollens became the basis for Anglo-Portuguese trade.
1756
Sr Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, better known as the Marques de Pombal, established the very first demarcated wine region in the world when he created the Real Companhia dos Vinhos do Alto Douro.
1862 - 1895
The Portuguese vineyards became the victim of the devastating phylloxera, a microscopic louse or aphid, that lives on and eats roots of grapes.
1908
The publication of the first “wine law” in Portugal, decreeing the protected areas as Vinho Verde, Dão, Sétubal and Madeira.
1986
Portugal becomes a member of the European Union.
Hans and Carry Jorgenson create Corte de Cima. In 1991 they introduced the Syrah grape, and in 1998 they made their first wine with Syrah Monocasto. The appellation rules wouldn’t allow them to call it Syrah, so they marketed it under the symbolic name Incognito. In the meantime, Syrah became one of the leading varieties in Portugal in general and in the Alentejo in particular.
1999
Richard Mayson's book Port and the Douro was published, which seeks to put Port in context and gives the growers and vineyards of the Douro valley equal if not greater weight.
2001
The Alte Douro region is added to the famous UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
2013
The European Commission banned the use of hybrid varieties.
2016
With the publication of the book Vinhas Velhas de Portugal, author Luis Anthunes tried to seduce the wine lovers with “a new type of enigmatic Portuguese grapes”.
2018
Quinta do Côtto, one of the top quality Portuguese wines, appeared again on the market with its traditional (Portuguese) cork, after having changed to a metal screw top many years previously.
Next month we learn more about the classifications of Portuguese wines
