Porto Wine & the Douro Wine Region | a small history

Over the course of almost two millennia, the schist slopes of the Douro Valley created a unique wine-growing landscape and exceptional wine. More than a nature gift, Port Wine is, in essence, this historical thickness, a collective cultural heritage of work and experiences, knowledge and art, accumulated by generations upon generations. Port Wine was and is a key product of the national economy and even more, a symbolic value that distinctly represents what being Portuguese stands for.

The history of the Alto Douro vineyard in Portugal is very old. There is no shortage of archaeological discoveries and documentary references to testify to the cultural persistence of winemaking efforts from other eras.

The remains of wine presses and wine vessels date back to at least the 3rd-4th centuries, all over the Douro region. However, the name Port Wine only appeared in the second half of the 17th century, at a time of expansion of Douro wine region and rapid growth in wine exports.

In the last third of the 17th century, in a time of rivalries between Northern Europe maritime empires, the Flemish and English increased the demand for Iberian wines, to the detriment of those from Bordeaux and other French regions. England starts importing increasing quantities of Porto Wine. In 1703, the Methuen Treaty established this commercial flow at the diplomatic level, providing for the return of privileges for British fabrics in the Portuguese market.

Douro production, stimulated by growing English demand and very high prices, tries to adapt to those new market demands. But, as often happens with all great wines, immediat profits and business rivalries leads to fraud and abuse.

Now, from the middle of the 17th century exports stagnate, while wine production appears to have continued to grow. Prices dropped sharply and the English decided not to buy anymore wine, accusing farmers of promoting adulteration.

Under pressure from the large Douro Wine growers and producers, the government of the future Marquis of Pombal, established the “Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro”, on September 10, 1756, which shought to ensure the quality of the product, avoiding adulteration, balancing production and trade and stabilizing prices and the first “demarcation of the land” takes place. The producing region is bordered by 335 stone markers with the name "Feitoria", a name that endorsed the best quality wine, the only one that could be exported to England, commonly known as fine wine.

The concept of registration is defined.

In the second half of the 19th century, a set of factors came together to mark the turning point from the Pombaline Douro production structure to the contemporary Douro, promoting profound changes in Douro viticulture.

After the destruction caused by powdery mildew in the 1850s, it was phylloxera that, from the following decade onwards, killed and reduced large part of the Douro vineyards in the demarcated area. In 1865, the establishment of a free trade stature among wine producers and at a regional level, the opening of the demarcation line, allowed the rapid expansion of the vineyard in the Douro Superior, where the phylloxera attack happened later and had a less violent nature and narrower consquences.

New practices emerge, around vineyard plantation allowing for the best regional varieties for grafting to be selected, with the rational use of fertilizers and phyto-sanitary products is spread, dramatically improveing the winemaking processes.

At the end of the century, the impact of phylloxera on the vineyards and in the region is clearly visible.

Gradually reorganized and now extending to a much larger area, the Douro vineyard will, from the end of the eighties, face another enemy, much more destructive than vine diseases - the commercial crisis. At the same time, fraud, imitations of Port Wine are becoming common in our main markets, where French Ports, Hamburg Ports and Tarragona Ports are sold at lower prices than genuine Port Wines.

With a trading and farming crisis, the Douro became a picture of misery.

When starting his dictatorship government, on May 10, 1907, João Franco signed a decree that regulated the production, sale, export and supervision of Port wine, returning to the principles that guided, 150 years earlier, the Pombaline policy of brand defense. The producing region was once again demarcated, now encompassing the Douro Superior. The exclusive rights of the Douro bar and the Leixões sea port for the export of Port Wines were reestablished, reserving the name of Port for fortified wines from the Douro region, with a minimum alcohol content of 16.5%. The protection and supervision of the brand was the responsibility of the Douro Region Viticulture Commission which is still standing, regulating and certifying all the Douro and Port Wine production to this day.

English adaptation from the original Portuguese text | Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto