“This landscape is a human epic”Jorge Dias is moved when he contemplates, from the top of a hill, the site of Quinta do Ventozelo (northern Portugal), a 250-hectare estate purchased in 2014 by his company, Gran Cruz, a world leader in Port wines and owned by the French group La Martiniquaise. In the distance, the white walls and tile roofs of the wine and wine tourism complex stand out, surrounded by the immensity of nature sculpted by man. Wavy or straight, horizontal or vertical, the vines are everywhere or almost, they furrow with their shale terraces the slopes of the mountains that descend towards the Douro. This river ends its course 200 kilometers further west, in the port that gave its name to the most famous fortified wine.
Unesco World Heritage, the spectacular anthroposols, these landscapes strongly shaped by man, of the Douro Valley are home to a wine route of 48,000 hectares divided, from east to west, into three sectors: Baixo Corgo, Cima Corgo and Duero Superior. Committed three centuries ago to satisfy the XXL demands of British merchants who set their sights on Portuguese wines after trade with France ceased, the pharaonic works have forged this environment. At the same time, the Marquis of Pombal, all-powerful minister of the Portuguese king Joseph IAhemwas responsible, in 1756, for delimiting this vineyard and regulating its production, making the Duero the precursor of the notion of “controlled designation of origin.”
In a letter addressed to the Portuguese crown in the mid-18th centurymy century, English merchants thus defined their “ideal port” : “Hot like a gun, sweet like Brazil, spicy like India and dark like ink. » From century to century, know-how has been perpetuated and perfected, framed by a multitude of rules, the application of which is guaranteed by the laboratories and tasters of the Douro and Port Wine Institute (IVDP). More than 100 grape varieties are authorized: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Tinta Baroque and even Tinta Cao, among the best known.
Few wines have so much trace of human intervention. Traditionally, it begins with crushing the best grapes in granite silos, the winepresses. Some major brands, such as Taylor’s, continue this method for their high-end wines, but labor is scarce. At Symington (owner of Graham’s, Dow’s, Warre’s and Cockburn’s), for example, machines designed to replicate the gentle pressure of the arches of the feet are taking over.
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