Which grapes make good wine?

Grapes for winemaking are one of the world’s oldest cultivated fruits, with over 10,000 different varieties grown worldwide, in an array of different climates.

Different grape varieties are used to make different types of wines and they come in many colours and flavours. The most common wine grapes include Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, and Garnacha – some of which you may be familiar with.

Down to earth

The type of soil very much controls the type of grapes you will find in any region - some grapes do better in dry sandy soil, while others prefer clay, slate, gravel, or shale. Whatever is good for any area has been tried and tested over the years to see which ones provide the best crop.

So what about Portugal’s wines?

Touriga Franca is apparently an easy to grow grape and is widely planted here, but Portugal has many local grape varieties, most of which are exclusive to the country or even the region in which they are grown. You may find Syrah, Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon grapes here and there, but these are not the reasons one looks to Portugal. It would be impossible to cover all varieties here - there are almost 300! But there are a few that are worth mentioning, and traditionally these hail from the Douro Valley region in the north, east of Oporto (Porto), and are also the core constituents of port wine, for which Portugal is famous for.

Blending

It is important to note some grapes are co-planted in the same vineyard; they are picked together, fermented together and it’s not unheard of to have up to twenty different varieties from a given parcel of grapes in the final wine, and this is where winemaker’s skills come in. Worldwide, bottles may even state the proportion of the blend on the label, such as ‘60% Merlot’ and ‘40% Cabernet Franc’ for example.

But this isn't always the case, and Portugal is well known for its ‘field blend’ wines. Many of these vineyards are really, really old, planted by farmers who relied on their agriculture to support their families who, at the time, had little regard for the specific grape type that was taking root. There is no ‘30% of this and 10% of that’, and for many of the wines in Portugal, the blend is made by the vineyard, not in the winery.

Best known Portuguese Wines

Touriga Nacional is a highly regarded Portuguese variety. Perhaps best known for its use in port, it also makes superb dry red wines. Despite the low yields from its small grapes, it is said to play a big part in the blends used for ports and is increasingly being used for table wine in the Douro and Dão areas.

Vinho Verde

One that should have special mention is Vinho Verde, a ‘green’ wine from the Vinho Verde region in northern Portugal. It is defined by the Minho River, which runs along the north of the region and forms Portugal's border with Galicia in Spain. Only wines from this very specific origin can be labelled as Vinho Verde - in the way that only the sparkling wine from Champagne can be officially called Champagne. Green wine is not a wine made with immature grapes - it’s a young wine and is meant to be drunk while still young, shortly after it’s bottled, and its’ name could be a reference to the ‘green’ flavours in this very fresh, light wine.

Vinho Verde is often slightly fizzy – not full-on sparkling, but a pleasant effervescence. Originally, this resulted from a small amount of sugar remaining as the wine was bottled before fermentation had finished. Today, the bubbles are added artificially by carbonation before bottling.

Green wine comes in mainly white and pink (sorry to those purists looking for green colour), and a little red is sometimes produced. The main grapes are Alvarinho (familiar here as Albariño) and Loureiro.

Portugal is a country with a strong wine tradition, and the excellent quality of its wines is recognised across the world, with numerous awards and distinctions won in international competitions.

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan