Fine Portuguese Wine

Portugal is a country famous for its wine. Though there are many varieties of wines produced in Portugal, the wines are divided into various types of wines where the two most famous types of wine are port wine and Douro wine.

Port wine needs schist rich soil for cultivation, in a specific climate. It is made using a special vinification method where the red varieties are most famous worldwide. Port wine is produced extensively in the beautiful Douro Valley of Alto Douro region. This wine is then exported from the city Porto to the world.

There are various varieties of port wine in Portugal today where the most popular ones are tawny, ruby, white and the Late Bottled Vintage.

Douro wine too has its origins in Douro Valley where it was originally bitter in taste. It was the relations between Portugal and England, and to ensure that the wines survived long and hot sea journeys that led to the English adding a Portuguese brandy, aguardente to the wine. With this, the red wines were fortified through the addition of brandy. This brandy was first added for providing support to the wine during its journey from Portugal to England.

This greatly improved the taste of the wine; and it first appeared in the registries of export of Portugal in the year 1679. Today, Douro wines are most famous as a table wine, and have many traits which are similar to that of port wine. The Barca Velha is a famous wine of Portugal that is considered to be one of the best wines of the world today.

In addition to port and Douro wine, Portugal is famous for a few more types of wine. They are the Colares sand wine, Moscatel wines, Alentejo wines, Bairrada wines and Dao wine. All these wines differ in its locale of production, taste and color.