The Portugal wine

To truly understand Portugal and its wine, nothing short of a visit will suffice. Sure you could attend some tastings, as so did I, but unless one has seen the slopes and gauged their steepness while trying to climb one, one can never comprehend the scale of difficulty that is involved in making wines here.

If geography isn’t lenient, neither is the climate, with hot summers and cold winters, continental climate. And yet, in spite of the odds, a group of winemakers, christened the Douro Boys, make some fantastic wine — the kind that respect tradition, doesn’t lack flavour or acidity, and yet, portray a lovely contemporary side of Portuguese winemaking. My recent voyage entailed visiting all five of the group.

Dirk Nieeport hails from a Dutch family that settled here long ago for, what most believe, the textile trade. Other more imaginative reasons have been proffered. They are a traditional Port house and today own almost 60+ hectares of their own land from where they also make some fantastic table (non-fortified) wines. Dirk respects nothing more than tradition, natural acidity, and grapes that are not over-ripe.

Crasto wines, on the other hand, are a different breed. The winemaker determinedly pursues consistency and desires to make wines that are free from the influences of a (bad) vintage.

Then you have Quinto do Vale Doña Maria, where the team is ably headed by the owner Van Zeller, who has worked with one of the biggest names in the Portuguese wine industry which was family business back then (we are talking Noval here). He is also one of the most enthusiastic components of this Douro grouping.

Quinta do Vale do Meao is perhaps the oldest of the lot, in the sense that the vineyard was owned and established in the family much before the others. The owner, Francisco “Vito” Javier de Olazabal doesn’t do mixed plantings in his vineyards and prefers to vinify grapes separately. At the time of visit, a new winery was being constructed to accommodate the growing business. A trip through the vine parcels was extremely invigorating. The view from the top was amazing and the Douro river appeared like a small stream. Finally, at Vallado, relatives of Vito and his son Chito, we find their cousin Chico, who makes wine with some signature twists. For example, he bottles a single-varietal Sousão grape wine. Few houses use this in blends, leave aside making solo-style wine. 

Portugal is a unique mix of the old and the new, where one never nominated at the cost of sacrificing the other - you still have lagars with grapes tried by foot but they also have the ability to have a punch down with a robotic arm (or is that foot?). It is this eclectic mix that will stamp the image of Portuguese wines in the future.