History of Portuguese wine
In 1386, Portugal and England signed the Treaty of Windsor which fostered close diplomatic relations between the two countries and opened the door for extensive trade opportunities.
In the mid-to-late 20th century, sweet, slightly sparkling rosé brands from Portugal (Mateus and Lancers being the most notable) became immensely popular around the globe-with the British wine market again leading the way.
[4] In the mid-1980s, Portugal's introduction to the European Union brought a flood of financing and grants to the stagnant Portuguese wine industry.
When the Phoenicians reached the area in the 10th century BC, they brought with them grape varieties and winemaking techniques from the Middle East and Carthage.
[5] The Ancient Greeks settlers of the 7th century BC, furthered the advance of viticulture in Southern Portugal and left evidence of their influence.
In the mid-9th century AD, Ordoño the Gothic king of Asturias (in what is now northern Spain) granted vineyards and landowning privileges around Coimbra to a monastic Christian order in the area.
Documents exist detailing Portuguese wine shipments from the Minho region to England occurring as early as the 12th century.
These wines, including those from the wet northern region of modern-day Vinho Verde, were often light and astringent with noticeable acidity.
[1] Over the ensuing centuries, whenever England was in conflict with other European powers (most notably France), Portugal and its many vineyards were there to fill in the gap caused by the disruption of trade.
The popularity of Port, or "blackstrap" as it was sometimes known because of its dark color and astringency, continued to increase when the War of the Spanish Succession essentially severed all trade in French wine among the English.
Less than scrupulous producers were adding sugar and elderberry juice to the wine to increase alcohol content and enhance color more cheaply.
Grapes grown in other regions of Portugal and even Spain were trucked into Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia to be misrepresented as authentic Port from the Douro.
In addition to their supervisory role, the organization also sought to remove the temptation for fraud by ordering that all elderberry plants in the Douro be ripped out.
[5] So intimately tied was port to the English that during the Napoleonic Wars, French and Spanish troops invaded Northern Portugal and Douro in an attempt to hurt British trade interest.
Hiding among the high, terraced vineyards of the Douro, the Portuguese would fire upon and attack the French soldiers stationed along the roads bordering the river below.
The likely cause was the diversification of British tastes which started to include the popularity of teas, coffees, beers, chocolates and other fortified wines such as sherry from Spain.
In Brazil, the wealthy market of Rio de Janeiro was given exclusively to the Douro producers at the expense of other Portuguese wine regions.
While Britain still remained a strong market, the Portuguese wine industry entered a period of stagnation that was further punctuated by the devastation of the phylloxera louse.
During Salazar's 40-year reign, the entire Portuguese wine industry was revamped beginning with the founding of the Junta Nacional do Vinhos (JNV) in 1937.
While the rise of co-operatives brought more order and structure to the Portuguese wine industry, it also had the negative effect of curbing creativity and free enterprise.
The lone bright spot during this period was the international success of a style of mass-produced, sweet, slightly sparkling rosés that came out of Portugal.
Following World War II, brands such as Mateus and Lancer marketed this style of wine to great success in British supermarkets and around the globe.
Smaller growers and wine producers received millions of dollars of subsidies and grants from the EU to improve their vineyards and winemaking facilities.
The Portuguese appellation system of Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC) was also upgraded to be more in line with its French, Italian and Spanish counterparts.
