The Douro More than Port

ONCE KNOWN ONLY FOR ITS PORT WINE PRODUCTION, THIS AREA IS NOW REGARDED AS A MAJOR PRODUCER OF FINE TABLE WINES. THE CLIMATE IN EACH AREA, AS WELL, OF COURSE, AS THE GRAPES THEMSELVES AFFECT WHAT IS POSSIBLE

Words: LÍVIA MOKRI

THE DOURO wine region, which got its name from the Douro River, stretches approximately 90km from the city of Porto to the Spanish border. Nowhere else in the country are the traces of human intervention more visible than there, in the form of terraced vineyards on steep slopes. Because of its great beauty, the region was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

The area of the Douro is about 250,000 hectares, but only 26,000 hectares of it are authorised for the production of port wines. And of the table wines now produced here which are gaining in importance, some 90% are reds, the remaining ten per cent divided between whites and rosés.

Where it started

The first table wine of the Douro is attributed to Fernando Nicolau de Almeida, a winemaker at the Ferreira winery in Porto. Almeida visited the Bordeaux region in France in the Second World War and the experience awakened a desire to create a high-quality table wine. Barca Velha was born in 1952, from the grapes of the Quinta do Vale Meão plantations in the Douro Superior sub-region.

The Douro River not only had a huge impact on the region in terms of terroir, but it was also a great help to the producers, as it made their products more accessible. The barrels of Porto wines from the distant plantations were transported by ships called Rabelos to the cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia, located opposite Porto, on the other side of the river, for further maturation. However, it took days for the shipments to reach the cellars from the vineyard.

The change that occured was the result of an unfortunate accident. In 1861, the ship of a British wine merchant and mapmaker named Joseph Forrester capsized on the river due to a cargo of gold of considerable weight. The merchant and all his products were lost, and only the ladies traveling with him survived; it is assumed that the crinolines they wore kept them afloat.

Boats transporting the wines were then gradually replaced by trucks, and some 12 years after Forrester’s death, the construction of a single-track railway line began, which stretches from Porto to the Spanish border, passing through dozens of tunnels and bridges: due to its special beauty, it has also been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Location, location

The Douro has three sub-regions, each located along a different stretch of the River:

To the east, near the Spanish border, is the Douro Superior, which accounts for just 2% of the region’s vineyards. This part of the Douro has the hottest and most extreme weather, with often hellish summers. The number of vineyards here has historically been limited and is still quite sparse, but in recent years more and more significant plantings have taken place as growers have begun to discover the potential of this dormant sub-region.

The central part of the Douro is Cima Corgo, around the village of Pinhão, where the majority of high-end Vintage Port wines are produced. It is the largest of the three sub-regions and accounts for almost half of the Douro’s total wine production. Its steep vineyards are predominantly on shale soil filled with granite deposits. Grapes closer to the river usually ripen much earlier than those higher up, because the river holds the heat longer than the air.

The closest sub-region to the city of Porto is called Baixo Corgo, which is best suited for making table wines. This, the smallest sub-region, has the highest concentration of vineyards. It is also the most accessible area. Being the westernmost sub-region, it is the coolest and wettest of the three due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, so its wines are slightly lighter and of lower quality compared to the other two sub-regions.

The Douro wine regulations since 1979 (both the temperature-controlled fermentation and the gentler extraction of tannins) resulted in an improvement in quality and producers began to use their best grapes to make table wines, instead of Port wines. It took centuries to produce world-class varieties in the region, but it was worth the wait.

The region’s vineyards rise steeply above the river, on slopes of up to 45 degrees. The vines struggle to find water in a region with very little annual rainfall. Thus, all the plant’s energy is concentrated on the fruit. The unforgiving terrain also limits the availability of mechanised work, so winemakers must perform almost all viticultural operations by hand.