Portugal, a country rich in history and renowned for its vast cultural heritage, is also home to a vibrant and diverse wine industry. From the lush vineyards of the Douro Valley to the sun-drenched slopes of the Alentejo, Portugal offers a tapestry of terroirs and grape varieties that produce wines of character and quality.
At the heart of Portugal’s winemaking tradition lies the Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here, amidst terraced vineyards cascading down the steep hillsides along the Douro River, some of Portugal’s most iconic wines are born, such as the fortified wine Porto.
Born almost by chance in 1678, when two English wine merchants tasted the wine produced in the Douro Valley and found it extraordinary, they imported it to England, captivating the palates of the nobility. This marked the beginning of a massive importation that still makes England the world’s largest consumer of Port today.
But Portugal’s wine offerings go beyond Port. Thanks to the valorization of a wide range of local grape varieties, which have not been supplanted by international blends, Portugal proves to be a land in ferment and ready to be discovered, capable of offering wines with great territorial expressiveness. From fresh and saline wines like Vinho Verde from Minho, to more intense and internationally styled red and white wines from the Douro or Bairrada, to rich and full-bodied reds and fresh and aromatic whites from the rising region of Alentejo, Portugal’s innovative wine production is attracting attention.
Portugal is also famous for its unique fortified wines, such as Madeira and Moscatel de Setúbal, which boast centuries-old traditions and a passionate following among wine lovers.
interview
Valentina Tenaglia：CEO Winechannel (journalist)
Frederico Falcão：President of Portugal Wines
-Do you know anything about Portuguese wines? We’d like to discover wines from Portugal with Federico Falcao. We’re here in the area of Portugal wines. So, tell me about your organization.
-So this is Wines of Portugal. We represent all the wine producers in Portugal. We are here in Paris for Wine Paris with these lovely stands, beautiful stand showing wines from all our 14 regions. So we have 14 wine regions in Portugal and we bring about 80 producers with us directly from all these 14 regions just to show a bit of the diversity of Portugal.
-How many wineries are here in Paris?
Altogether we have 150. And with us in our booth, it’s 80. But altogether we are 150 this year. And we are growing next year. Like Italy. Italy is growing a lot in this fair, and Portugal is also increasing the participation in wine Paris.
-Yes, I know. Why is the French market is important for Portugal’s export？
You know, it’s strange because France is our number one market when it comes to exports, which is strange. It’s the number one market. But especially because of Port wine. So, Port wine is very important in our exports to France. But if you take ports out of the equation, it’s not the strongest market for Portuguese wines. But this Wine Paris is not just about France. This is an international fair. This is a fair where we have buyers from Canada, United States, Brazil, China, Japan, all over the world.
-And which countries are more interesting for export from Portugal?
-So our six biggest countries, in order are France, then the United States, UK, Brazil, Canada, Germany. So these are our biggest countries where we export more wine. So I would say because France is strong for Port wine, and if we except Port wine, I would say the more important markets are the United States, UK and Brazil.
-What do you think about Chinese market?
-Well, the Chinese market used to be a very strong market for us. Then the market has been dropping since 2017. I think it’s dropping a lot, the consumption of wine. Then came the pandemic. And the drop was even bigger. We still invest in China. We still go to China every year to several cities in China, wine fairs in China. We keep investing in the market because we think that China in the near future will start growing the consumption of wine. It’s estimated that in 2025 the market will start to grow again. And of course, when the Chinese start to drink wine, it’s a lot of wine we need to sell there. So, we keep investing in the market. We keep thinking the market in the Chinese market is going to recover. So that’s why we go to China every year.
-Great, I think that I would like to taste some wines now!
-That’s the best way. We should start tasting wines and then the interview. But that’s fine. Let’s try some nice wines from Portugal. Let’s travel through our 14 wine regions and to show you just a bit of Portugal when it comes to wines.
-So now we’re trying a wine from the northern region of Portugal. It’s called Vinhos Verdes. It’s up north in Portugal. It’s made from a grape variety called Alvarinho. So it’s a Portuguese and Spanish grape variety. It exists in the north of Portugal and in the south of Galicia, in Spain. So it exists in both parts of these two countries, Portugal and Spain.
It’s a very aromatic grape with a very full-bodied, strong palate. And these wines of Alvarinho, they age beautifully. They’re easy wines to drink as an aperitif, easy to pair with seafood, shellfish. But it’s a great wine, a great grape.
And these wines aged beautifully. I’ve tasted wines over 20 years old and they’re amazing because they have very good acidity, and good palates. And I love it, its very great, one of our best.
– And this one is made in a sheet soils. So this region is known for the granite soil, but this particular vineyard is in schist soil, so it gives a slightly different profile to the wine.
Okay, now let’s try a red wine.
So now we’re trying the wine from the Alentejo area. I mean, it’s the biggest region in Portugal, not a wine region, because the wine region is Douro, but it’s the biggest regions in Portugal because it occupies like one third of the total area of the country in lands. So it’s a big producer. It’s an area that produces a lot of wine nowadays on internationally.
It’s very cool area, rains a lot, temperatures are low, especially for white wines. And now we are in the south of Portugal, in one of the hottest areas of Portugal. It’s a big producer of red wines and more fruity and intense red wine and full bodied red wines. It’s a lot of fruit, a lot of fruit coming in, really smooth round tannins. You feel the alcohol, you feel the body of the wine.
-It’s an elegant wine, it’s intense but elegant.
Yes, it’s true. These guys work very well. They try not to extract too much to keep the elegance of the wine. So you see an elegant wine, fruity wine, round tannins, soft tannins. Easy drinking, but at the same time, also a powerful wine.
Okay, and now I want to show you one more wine.
-Which wine is this?
Now I’ll show you a wine from Madeira. From the islands. Yeah, the grape variety it’s Verdelho. So in Italy, we have a grape called Verdicchio. And in Spain there’s one called Verdejo. And this one is called Verdelho. So the names are similar, but they’re completely different grapes, not the same grape, but the names are very similar. So this is a fortified wine. You will feel an explosion of fruit and elegance and complexity in this wine. It’s amazing. And these wines, these Madeira wines, they last forever.
I’ve tried Madeira wine from the 18th century that was amazing. And the 19th century, I’ve tasted many, many wines from Madeira. These wines last forever. This is a perfume as well. This is an amazing wine from here. Like a feeling of heaven.
-It’s a jewel, like a gold.
-This is “gold “. Very interesting wines. It’s a very small production because they don’t have many hectares on the island. I think they have a bit over 460 hectares of vineyards in the island of Madeira. So it’s not that much. And the production is very small. The yields per hectare are very small, so they don’t produce that much quantity. But the wines are amazing. And it’s very complex.
-And that is impossible to forget.
-Exactly, These wines are difficult to be forget.
-Thank you. Cheers. With this wine. Thank you for your time.
