276 Port anD the Douro
FREGUESIA: parish.
GENEROSO: literally ‘generous’; also meaning fortified as in vinho generoso, fortified
wine.
GEROPIGA: grape must prevented from fermenting by the addition of aguardente (q.v.).
Sometimes used in blending.
GIGO: see cesto da vindima.
GRANEL: bulk (as in vinho de granel, bulk wine).
GRAU: degree of temperature, sugar or alcohol.
INOX: the colloquial word for stainless steel (from aço inoxidavel).
JEROPIGA (occasionally spelt geropiga): grape must prevented from fermenting by the
addition of spirit or aguardente. It is commonly used for sweetening fortified wines. The
South Africans commercialise an intensely sweet wine known as jerepigo.
LAGAR: stone (usually granite) or concrete tank for treading and fermenting grapes.
LAGRIMA: literally ‘tears’; depending on the context lagrima signifies free-run grape juice
or a very sweet, unctuous white Port.
LEVE: light (as in the category of white Port known as leve seco – light dry).
LOTE: a ‘lot’ or parcel of wine.
MACACO: literally ‘monkey’, it also denotes the spiked plungers that are used to keep the
floating manta (q.v.) in contact with the fermenting mosto (q.v.).
MANTA: literally ‘blanket’; in the context of Port vinification it means the cap of grape
skins and stalks that floats to the surface during fermentation.
MIRADOURO: a vantage point to admire the view.
MORTÓRIOS: literally ‘mortuaries’, the term signifies the terraces abandoned during the
phylloxera epidemic of the 1870s and 1880s.
MOSTO: grape juice, must.
OBRAS: works or alterations. The word has entered the Anglo-Portuguese lexicon because
of the seemingly continual obras and the disruption that they cause!
PATAMAR: vineyard terrace without a retaining wall.
PATRÃO (plural patrões): the owner of a quinta; the boss!
PATROA: the owner (if female) or the owner’s wife.
PÉ: literally ‘foot’ but often used to refer to an individual vine or cepa (q.v.). Pisa a pé means
to tread by foot.
PILHEIRO: hole in a vertical terrace wall formerly used for planting vines.
PINTOR: literally ‘painter’, meaning veraison or the colouring of the grapes during ripening.
PIPA: a ‘pipe’ or cask used for ageing wine. A pipa is also a unit of measurement: 550 litres
in the Douro, 620 litres in Vila Nova de Gaia and 534.24 litres for export purposes.
PLANALTO: the high plains on the northern and southern margins of the Douro.
PODA: pruning.
PRENSA: press (as in vinho da prensa, press wine).
PROVA: tasting.
QUINTA: literally a farm, estate or landed property (see page 87 for a fuller definition in
the context of the Douro).