Port and the Douro (Infinite Ideas Classic Wine)

Port anD the Douro 59

Locality: Reflecting the mesoclimatic differences within the demarcated region, the
Douro is divided into five sections, each of which contain a number of different sub-
sectors as follows:

Section 1: The higher parishes of the Baixo Corgo north of Régua with the coolest

climate: 0 to plus 60 points.

Section 2: From Barqueiros to the River Corgo on the north side of the Douro

(including Régua) and from Barro to the River Vilar on the south side (i.e. most

of the Baixo Corgo including the Corgo and Tanha valleys): minus 50 to plus 260

points (27 sub-sectors).

Section 3: From the mouth of the Corgo to the River Ceira (near Gouvinhas) on the

north side of the Douro and from the Vilar to the Tedo rivers on the south side:

minus 50 to plus 460 points (18 sub-sectors).

Section 4: The heart of the Cima Corgo and some of the Douro Superior, extending

all the way from the Ceira and Tedo rivers in the west as far east as the Saiao valley

(near Pocinho). It takes in all the main tributaries including the Távora, Torto,

Caedo, Pinhão and Tua rivers: minus 50 to plus 600 points (38 sub-sectors).

Men who shaPeD the Douro

Álvaro Moreira da Fonseca (1902–1980)

a graduate in agronomy (1932) and a grower in the douro, Álvaro Moreira da Fonseca

quantified the terroir of the region with his works O Método para e Elaboração do Benefício

do Douro (the Method for the elaboration of the Benefício in the douro) and A Distribuição

do Benefício na Região Duriense (Method for distributing the Benefício in the douro

Region). devised when most of the world was at war and published by the then Port

Wine institute (iVP) in 1947 and 1954 respectively, these rather dry-sounding titles

literally shaped the douro in the second half of the twentieth century by awarding points

to individual vineyard holdings according to twelve physical variables (see below).

Moreira da Fonseca’s work was very much a product of the controlling political

regime at the time but it has endured to this day and, with minor modifications, still

forms the basis of the cadastro or vineyard register on which the benefício or licensing

of Port production is granted today. he wrote a number of books on Port, especially

from a historical angle. his last work was as co-author of the remarkable Port Wine –

Notes on its History, Production and Technology, published by the iVP in 1981. among the

positions he held during his lifetime were head of the Laboratories and Research of the

iVP and President of the casa do douro. Few men in the world of wine can have been so

successful in putting numbers to the nebulous concept of terroir. Given the convoluted

politics and conflicts of interest in the douro region, i fear it would be impossible to

implement a comparable system today.