Portugal Flashcards
What are the primary grapes of Port?
Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (also known elsewhere in Portugal as Aragonez and everywhere else as Tempranillo)
What is Portugal’s most planted grape variety?
The white grape Fernao Pires, also called Maria Gomes, and is found mainly in the south.
What is the most common red variety in Portugal?
Castelao (also known as Periquita)
Castelao (also known as Periquita)
Less than a third
What two white grapes are prominent in Vinho Verde?
Loureiro and Alvarinho (known in Rias Baixas as Loureira and Albarino).
What four grapes are important to Madeira?
Servial, Malvasia, Verdelho (known in Vinho Verde as Gouveio and in Spain as Godello), Boal (or Bual)
What are “lodges” in reference to Port?
The warehouses where Port wines are traditionally aged until ready for shipping.
What is the difference between the Duoro and the Duero?
The Duoro is what the river is called in Portugal and once it extends 60 miles eastward to the Spanish boarder, it becomes the Duero.
What three subregions is the Duoro divided into?
Baixo Corgo, Cima Corgo, and Duoro Superior.
What style of port does the Baixo Corgo make?
In the westernmost section, the Baixo Corgo is a relatively fertile area with ample rainfall that makes mostly lighter styles of Port.
What kind of climate does the Cima Corgo have and what type of port do they produce?
The central core of the Port region, this subzone has steep rocky slopes of schist and granite that have been terraced. It has hot summers, cold winters, less rain than Baixo Corgo and is considered to produced the finest ports.
Where is almost half the port vineyard acreage located?
In the Cima Corgo
What is the climate like in the Duoro Superior?
The upriver, eastern part of the valley with more extreme temperatures than the Cima Corgo and very little rainfall. It is the largest subzone physically but contains less than a quarter of the area under vine for port.
What are the 6 preferred varieties for Port production?
Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Tinta Barroca, Tinta Cao, and Tinta Amarela (also known as Trincadeira)
What are the two predominant varieties for white Port?
Malvasia and Gouveio
Define “ruby” Port.
Light style of Port, with a dark ruby red color and youthful aromas. Rubies are aged in large oak casks for a minimum of two to three years.
Define “reserve” Port.
A blend of premium ruby Ports bottled after four to six years aging in oak vats and are more like tawny Ports.
Define “Aged Tawny” Port.
A Port with enough additional aging that its color has taken on brownish tones and more mature oxidized flavors. Some are aged in wooden casks for decades.
What is a “pipe” in reference to Port production?
A pipe refers to the wooden casks that an aged tawny Port is aged in.
Define “vintage” Port.
A port from a single year’s harvest, bottled young and then cellared for many more years before release. Producers individually “declare a vintage” in excellent years, typically 3 out of 10.
Define “cadastro”.
A unique and complex vineyard ranking system in the Port region. It assesses 12 factors such as altitude, yield, and locality. Each vineyard is classified A to F (high to low).
Define “beneficio”.
The volume of Port that a vineyard is allowed to produced, which artifically raises prices. The beneficio is based on the ranking given by the cadastro.
