There is a lot more to Portuguese wine than port and madeira – remember Mateus?
- Vinho verde, or ‘green wine’ refers to young wine and should be consumed within a year of its vintage
- With age, Bairrada, mellow into an enjoyable sip that’s savoury, slightly peppery, malty and chocolatey
When it comes to wine, Portugal is usually associated with port and madeira. These days, however, the southern European country is producing many other wines, too.
Yes, Portugal is sunny and warm, but up in the northwest, along the windy Atlantic coast, there is a cool hilly refuge for wine grapes. Vinho verde (“green wine”), which refers to young wines, is a refreshing style of white wine that is low in alcohol (about 11 per cent) with a vibrantly fresh acidity. Some vinhos verdes have a gentle fizz that’s apparent when the bottle is freshly opened – a leftover from the effects of carbon dioxide on fermentation.
Vinhos verdes can range from dry to off-dry depending on the winemaker, and the grapes can be of a variety that are blended together. There’s even red vinho verde, which is rarely exported as most of it is consumed in Portugal; it’s made primarily from an indigenous grape called vinhao.
Vinho verde should be consumed young – within a year of its vintage. Lightly chilled, it’s the perfect wine for a sunny day, delicious with a salad or a simple seafood dish.
The Douro Valley, which is home to the great port houses, is also where robust reds worthy of cellaring are produced. Bairrada, made from the baga grape, is a voluptuously full-bodied wine that has high acids and tannins in its youth, which, with age, mellow into an enjoyable sip that’s savoury, slightly peppery, malty and chocolatey with flavours of dark fruit.
Touriga nacional and tinta roriz, two grapes that are commonly used in port, can make elegant wines with an intensely perfumed nose and lush red and ripe black fruits that are balanced and not too tannic.
Castelão, a grape that is rarely seen outside Portugal, grows best in the sandy soils around the Setúbal Peninsula. It has some of the characteristics of cabernet sauvignon, with its cedar-scented dusty redcurrant fruit and supple tannins.
And last but not least, we have Mateus, the “classic” wine of Portugal, a lively frizzante-style rosé with under 9 per cent alcohol. It was created by Fernando van Zeller Guedes, who worked for Sogrape, Portugal’s largest wine company, after World War II, for overseas markets. Its distinctive bottle, which was inspired by the hip flasks soldiers carried in their kit, is recognised the world over.
The wine is named after Mateus Palace, in Vila Real. At the height of its popularity, in the 1980s, Mateus accounted for about 40 per cent of Portugal’s wine exports.
Mateus is on the sweet side and something most wine lovers grow out of after tasting better bottles. Current versions are more diversified, and include a white one that has chardonnay in the blend, and Mateus Rosé Tempranillo, which is a more intense shade of pink than the original and is produced in Spain.
