Content about Douro DOC

February 4, 2013

Watch for more Portuguese wine on the shelves in the coming year, as well as major promotional events featuring them.

Portugal is making great efforts to increase the awareness of her quality dry wines in the United States from all major regions, including Alentejo , Minho/Vinho Verde, Lisbon/Estremadura, Bairrada, Dao, Setubal, and Algarve, as well as Douro, from which Port comes. Douro has already made inroads for some of its dry wines, with Douro Boys portfolio as an example.

October 1, 2012

Reflections on a Glass of Port

The attractiveness of Port can be found in the excuses people give for not drinking it.

It was the middle of the Port grape harvest last week in the Douro Valley, and I was having a cup of morning coffee with Rupert Symington – one of a band of brothers and cousins who run the family Port business – before we headed out to spend a day visiting the quintas (vineyard estates) that supply the family’s sterling group of Port brands: Graham’s, Warre’s, Dow’s, Smith Woodhouse and, more-

July 12, 2012

A Delicious Dilemma for Portuguese Wines

Good quality, good prices. Now, how to you get people to try them?

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend a week in Portugal drinking fine wines and eating good foods as I talked with winemakers from up and down the countryside. My visit included wineries in the Douro Valley, the Vinho Verde area, Bairrada, and Lisboa, as well as sitting in on presentations by winemakers from Alentejo, which I have previously toured, and from Tejo, which I have not.

March 2, 2011

Beyond Port

In a rapidly evolving and expanding wine world, even a certified wine wonk should be excused for being oblivious to a heretofore humble wine region or even to new wines emerging from classic European vineyards. Take, for example, Douro table wi

February 11, 2011

Taylor Fladgate's 1855 Port

Before the American Civil War, before phylloxera wiped out the vineyards of Europe, before Darwin published his "On the Origin of the Species," a winegrower in the Douro Valley laid down a few barrels of his 1855 vintage. Last y

January 19, 2011

The Master Blender of Porto

Whether making Champagne, first-growth Bordeaux or California Meritage, the challenge of blending from the various cuvees is the highest of the winemaker's cellar arts. None does in better - or has more on the line - than Natasha Brid