Portugal General/History

Question 1

Where does Portugal rank in world production? Consumption per capita?

Answer 1

11 largest producer in the world

7th in per capita consumption?

Question 2

What treaty was signed in 1386, establishing a diplomatic alliance between Portugal and England?

Answer 2

Treaty of Windsor. This paved the way for extensive trade between the two kingdoms. Portugal emerged from the Middle Ages with great interest in maritime trading routes and exploration, and developed the first great navy in modern Europe.

Question 3

When was Madeira discovered?

How far is Madeira from Portugal?

Answer 3

1419, by Portuguese sailors exploring the African Coast.

625 miles from the Portuguese mainland.

Question 4

How did Madeira become an important port of call?

Answer 4

It’s location was the perfect stop in both directions for captains to fill their ships with fresh food, sugar, and wine. Eastward toward India or westward toward the New World.

Question 5

When and where was Port discovered?

Answer 5

In 1678, two Englishmen arrived in Lamego, a mountain town in the Douro Valley, and discovered Porto (Port), a sweet, fortified vinous concoction produced at a local monastery. The abbot of Lamego practiced mutage, arresting the fermentation of his wines with brandy while sugar was still present. The Englishmen sent the wines home to Liverpool, where the strength and richness of Port earned its wild popularity.

Question 6

What was the nickname for Port in the 17th century?

Answer 6

Blackstrap.

Question 7

What caused a boom in sales of Douro wines in the end of the 17th century? How big was the boom in numbers?

Answer 7

War and trade embargos with France.

The English had relied on the light reds of northern Portugal as an alternative to claret since the early 12th century, but had always considered French wines superior.

Port was, in style and strength, a wine that could rouse English tastes; the introduction of Port at this time coincided not only with England’s difficulties with France, but also with Western Europe’s rising interest in sweetness, predicated by new trade with the West Indies.

Discovering of Port in 1678 there were 427 tuns (1 tun=954 liters) exported.
By 1685 14,000 tuns were exported.

Question 8

What is the Treaty of Methuen?

Answer 8

A English treaty signed in 1703 signed with Portugal, establishing a long-lasting trade agreement between the two nations and preferential tariffs for Portuguese wines.

Question 9

What was the first Port house founded in Portugal?

Answer 9

Christiano Kopke, a German, founded the house of Kopke in 1639, four decade before the first recorded shipment of Porto to England.

Question 10

What were the first two English houses found in Portugal by 1700?

Answer 10

Warre and Co.

Croft and Taylor

Question 11

Because of demand in the 1700’s, what fraudulent practices were used in Portugal to satisfy English thirsts? (3)

Answer 11

• Merchants aromatized wines
• added excessive amounts of sugar and alcohol
• achieved deeper color with the addition of elderberry—a technique perhaps borrowed from the Champenoise.

Question 12

What was the Companhia Geral dos Vinhos do Alto Douro?
When was it formed?
What are they known as today?

Answer 12

The Douro Wine Company.

• Charged with eliminating fraud and installing regulatory measures, the company formally established the boundaries and practices of the Douro appellation in 1756.
• The Douro Wine Company regulated grape prices, fixed pricing on the finished wines, managed exports and monopolized the sale of Portuguese brandy (aguardente) used in the fortification process. The company, whose dual role as a regulator and a shipper of wine caused stern criticism, survives as the Royal Oporto Wine Company, but its regulatory functions were lost over time.

Question 13

How and when did the Douro Wine Company grade Port vineyards?

Answer 13

Between 1758 and 1761 they developed a methodology for grading Port vineyards and authorized each individual farmer’s production allotment relative to the vineyard’s grade.

The 335 best vineyards were classified as feitoria and marked with stones, signifying fruit reserved for the English market.

Lesser vineyards (rama) provided domestic wines. The reputation of the wines from Portugal was saved.

Question 14

In the 18th century the Douro Wine Company graded Port vineyards. What were the best vineyards classified and used for?
What were the lesser vineyards classified as and used for?

Answer 14

The 335 best vineyards were classified as feitoria and marked with stones, signifying fruit reserved for the English market.

Lesser vineyards (rama) provided domestic wines. The reputation of the wines from Portugal was saved

Question 15

Who manages the appellation and regulation of Port today? What else do they govern?

Answer 15

Douro Port Wine Institute (IVDP) Instituto do Vinho do Douro e do Porto

Institute governs the production of both Port and Douro wine.

Question 16

What is torna viagem?

Answer 16

“Round Trip”- the voyage across the Atlantic or to the East Indies and back in which Madeira would be shipped and achieve its distinctive character

Question 17

What is Vinhos ao Roda? What is Vinhos Canteiro?

Answer 17

Vinhos ao Roda—wines that had undergone the torna viagem (round trip) across the Atlantic, or to the East Indies and back—sold for much higher prices than Vinhos Canteiro, the wines that matured on the island.

Question 18

When did the estufagem process begin to be used in Madeira?

Answer 18

Early 1800’s; began to replace the lengthy voyage in the early 1800s, althought a few wines were deliberately, if impractically, matured at sea until the 1900s.

Question 19

What two moments in American history was Madeira used to toast?

Answer 19

Signing of the Declaration of Independence and George Washington’s inauguration.

Question 20

What disrupted Portugal’s trade with England in the beginning of the 1800’s? What was the outcome?

Answer 20

The French and Spanish invaded Portugal in 1807, until 1815 with Napolean’s defeat and exile. Although the vineyards were unharmed over those years, the production quality and prices were greatly affected. After Napolean’s defeat they reopened trade to Europe and Portugal lost market share to France, Spanish Sherry, and beer.

Question 21

When did Sherry replace Port as England’s fortifed wine of choice?

Answer 21

The late 1800’s.

Question 22

What diseases first affected Portugal? When exactly?

Answer 22

1850’s- Powdery and downy mildew.

1867- Phylloxera entered the Douro.

Question 23

What was the only region in Portugal that was not affected by Phylloxera in 1867?

Answer 23

Colares, near Lisboa.

Question 24

Alongside Port, what two wines were the face of Portuguese wine worldwide after WWII? What caused this?

Answer 24

Mateus and Lancers. Both were rival commercial brands of sweet, semi-sparkling rose.

This was during the four decades of authoritarian, right-wing rule, which consolidated small vineyards into a network of larger co-ops and caused the quality of wine to suffer until Portugal transitioned to democracy with a left-leaning military coup in 1974, followed by its admission into the EU in 1986.

Question 25

What is a quinta? What is a single-quinta port?

Answer 25

Portuguese word meaning ‘farm’. It may also refer to a small producing estate or vineyard.

A single-quinta port are those made from a single year and from a single estate in the Douro Valley

Question 26

What is aguardente?

Answer 26

Portuguese brandy used in the fortification process of port.

Question 27

In general, how is Portugal’s climate and soils?

Answer 27

Very different influences of Atlantic, Mediterranean, and even continental climates. Soils, too, vary enormously: granite, slate, and schist in the north and inland; limestone, clay, and sand by the coast; and the schist that, once again, finds favor among quality-focused producers in the south.

Question 28

What is a lager?

Answer 28

term used in Portugal for a low-sided stone trough where grapes are trodden and fermented. Most have now been replaced by conventional fermentation vats except in the Douro Valley, where some of the best ports continue to be foot-trodden in lagares.

Question 29

Who is the largest producer in Portugal?
What is their success based on?
What wine brands are they known for?
Acquisitions outside of Portugal?

Answer 29

Sogrape:
Portugal’s largest wine producer, owned by the Oporto-based Guedes family, whose success is founded on Mateus Rosé.
Since the 1980s, it has invested in new wine regions, acquiring Portuguese winemaking facilities and vineyards in the Minho, Dão, Bairrada, Alentejo, and Douro (it owns port shippers Ferreira, Sandeman, and Offley).
Table wine brands include Douro icon Ferreira’s Barca Velha, Grão Vasco, Duque de Viseu, Gazela, Planalto, Quinta de Azevedo, Quinta dos Carvalhais, and Herdade do Peso. Global acquisitions include Finca Flichman (Argentina), Framingham (New Zealand), Los Boldos (Chile), and Rioja-based Bodegas LAN.