Port anD the Douro 71graPe varieties: a BrieF history
Portuguese vineyards have traditionally been set out in a seemingly haphazard manner, with
numerous different grape varieties interplanted on the same small plot. Ask the average
small grower how much of this or that grape variety he has growing in the vineyard and he
will almost certainly shrug his shoulders and utter the words não sei – I don’t know! It is
not that he is being coy; it is just that he really won’t know. In the Douro, where as many
as ninety different varieties have been sanctioned for planting at any one time, this means
that there can be twenty or more different grapes growing cheek by jowl in the same small
garden-sized plot.
This viticultural anarchy has naturally hampered research into the characteristics of
individual grape varieties. The first reference to specific grape varieties in the Douro is
in the work of Rui Fernandes who wrote the Descrição do terreno em roda da cidade de
Lamego, duas leguas (‘Description of the land, two leagues around the city of Lamego’)
in 1531–1532. Among the varieties that are still recognisable today, Fernandes mentions
Bastardo, Trincadente, Malvasia, Catelão (sic), Lourelo, Verdelho, Donzelinho, Terrantes,
Mourisco and Felgosão (sic). Of these Trincadente is probably Tinta Amarela (Trincadeira),
Catelão is Castelão, which is no longer planted in any quantity in the Douro, and Lourelo
is Loureiro, a variety now confined to Vinho Verde. Others like Agudelho, Alvaro de
Sousa, Burral Camarrinho and Ceitão have either changed name or are now extinct.
For growers eking a living from tiny parcels of vineyard, the interplanting of numerous
different grape varieties was (and in many places continues to be) a good insurance policy. A
variety susceptible to, say, uneven flowering could be offset by another, more resistant grape
that might be prone to rot later in the growing season. Likewise, a variety susceptible to
drought would be offset by another that was drought resistant (see note on irrigation below).
By hedging their bets in this way the Douro’s farmers could assure themselves of a reasonable
crop of grapes in all but the most extreme of years. Fernandes himself confirms this, observing
that ‘if some varieties fail to yield well in a particular year the others would compensate’.
It wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century that the first of many attempts was made to
list and categorise Portuguese grapes, starting with those in the Douro. In 1853, Joseph
James Forrester complained that ‘an infinite number of different wines could be produced
in the Douro if only there could be a separation of grape varieties’. However Forrester’s
obsession with light, unfortified wines (see pages 52) led him to single out varieties that
are not considered particularly suitable for either Port or Douro wine today. Assessing the
Bastardo variety, he writes that ‘it produces a rich, delicate wine, with delicious flavour and
bouquet, and with little colour. The Bastardo wine, properly made and judiciously treated
will in Portugal keep for any length of time without brandy’. Likewise, on Alvarilhão
(today spelt Alvarelhão) he writes ‘it is a very durable wine; and if perfectly made, may be
kept in Portugal altogether without brandy’ (Forrester’s italics).
This situation was shortly compounded by the arrival of phylloxera, during which time
a number of the more troublesome vinifera varieties were probably driven to extinction.
Writing in 1876 when phylloxera was at its height, the Visconde de Vila Maior lists a