Portugal

Portuguese Wine

Portugal is a small country with an unusually large number of native grape varieties — well over two hundred in use — almost none of which grow anywhere else. That isolation is why Portuguese wine still tastes distinctly Portuguese, and why it remains one of the last places in Europe where serious wine is genuinely inexpensive.

The regions

Douro is the terraced river valley where Port is made, and where the same grapes — Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz — are now fermented dry into some of the country's best reds. Alentejo in the south is warmer, softer and the everyday red for most of Portugal. Dão and Bairrada are cooler and more structured. Vinho Verde in the north-west makes light, low-alcohol, faintly spritzy whites; the serious end of it is varietal Alvarinho. Madeira is the fortified wine that survives anything.

What to expect

Portuguese reds are typically firm, dark and savoury rather than sweet-fruited, and the price for that structure is lower than anywhere comparable in France, Italy or Spain. The whites are the under-explored half — Alvarinho and dry Douro whites do the job of a Chablis or an Albariño at less money.