QUALITY AND TRADITION
Port Wine is a liqueur wine produced exclusively from grapes from the oldest demarcated region in the world, which was decreed in 1756 by the Marques of Pombal. A unique region in the Douro Valley in Portugal, which combines the virtues of a schist soil, its privileged sun exposure, its micro climate of scorching summers and chilling cold winters, and the remarkable work done by Men with the construction of shale walls that prolong the slopes that characterize the Alto Douro Wine Region – a region classified in December 2001 by UNESCO as World Heritage. In here, a wine of extremes and excesses is produced – a truly unique wine, which is probably the best wine in the world.
PROBABLY THE BEST WINE IN THE WORLD
Port wine produced here is made from a wide range of traditional varieties, most of which are native to the area, and so perfectly adapted to hot and arid conditions of the Douro, this being the origin of the unique and distinctive character of the Port wine. A huge diversity of wine types, which surprise you by its richness, intensity, flavour & colour and remarkable potential for aging and longevity, allowing the production of a wide range of styles – one of the most fascinating aspects of port wine
The first recorded exports of wine with this name took place in 1678, but it was in the second half of the eighteenth century that a series of ’fortification’ practices have started. These consisted on the addition of grape brandy to the wine during fermentation, fortifying it, due to its superior aging potential, which became the great port wine we know today. The trade and export ofPort winewere, until fairly recently, connected to the river and the Rabelo boats. These carried the wines from the Douro region into the cellars of exporters, located on the coast, in Gaia, where it is believed that the last commercial trip of a Rabelo boat occurred in 1964. Nowadays, with the railway line and easiness of road transport, the tradition of Rabelo boats no longer exists, but was forever linked to the image of the port wine, as well as its history and tradition.
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