central and northern districts also produce wine in considerable
quantity, and much of this is of very fair quality. Thus in the
central district of Val de Peñas and in the Rioja region (situated
between Old Castile and Navarre) in the north-east are produced
red wines which in regard to vinosity, body and in some other respects
resemble the heavier clarets or burgundies of France—although not
possessing the delicacy and elegance of the latter. They are shipped
in some quantity to the United Kingdom as Spanish “claret” or
Spanish “burgundy.” The most important industry, outside the
southern districts, is, however, that in Catalonia, where, in the
neighbourhood of the town of that name, the wine known as Tarragona
or Spanish “port” is produced. The finest Tarragona (which
much resembles port) is made in the Priorato region, about 15 m.
inland.
Wines of Portugal
In the north-east of Portugal, not far from the town of Oporto—from which it takes its name and whence it is exported—is produced the wine, unique in its full-bodied and generous character, known as port.
Port is grown in the Alto Douro district, a rugged tract of land some 30 to 40 m. long by 10 m. wide, which commences at a point Port. on the river Douro some 60 m. above Oporto. The character of the Alto Douro is extremely mountainous and rugged. J. L. W. Thudichum, in his Treatise on Wines, gives a striking and almost poetical description of it as compared with Jerez. He says: “The vineyards of Jerez are so beautiful and productive that they might well be termed the vineyards of Venus. Undulating hills, easily accessible from all sides, are covered with a luxurious growth of vines. … Very different is the aspect of the Alto Douro. Here all is rock, gorge, almost inaccessible mountain, precipice and torrent, while over or along all these rude features of nature are drawn countless lines of stone walls by which man makes or supports the soil in which the vines find their subsistence. I thought that if Jerez was the vineyard of Venus, this Alto Douro vineyard must be termed the vineyard of Hercules.” The vineyards are, in fact, situated on artificially made terraces, supported by walls on the mountain sides. If this were not the case the heavy winter rains would wash away the soil. The climate of the Alto Douro is very variable. Intense heat in summer is followed by severe cold in winter. The soil is a peculiar clay-schist, on or alternating with granite, and it is to the peculiar conditions of climate and soil that port owes its remarkable qualities of colour, body and high flavour. There appears to be no predominant and distinct type of vine, such as is the case in other viticultural districts, but a number of varieties, mostly yielding grapes of a medium size are common to the Douro vineyards. The method of cultivation is generally that of a rational low culture, and in this respect differs from that employed in other parts of the country, where the vines are either trained on trees or over trellis-work at some height from the ground.
Vinification.—The process of converting the Alto Douro grapes into wine differs in some material particulars from those employed elsewhere. The grapes are cut and then conveyed in baskets by the Gallegos (as the labourers who come specially from Galicia in Spain for this purpose are termed) to the winery. Here the stalks are removed, generally by a machine similar to the French égrappoir, and the grapes then placed in the lagar. This is a square stone vessel of considerable size made to hold up to fifteen pipes (the pipe equals 115 gallons) of wine. It is roughly 2 ft. deep and from 3 to 10 yds. wide. The grapes are first trodden for a period varying from twenty-four hours upwards, and are then allowed to ferment in the lagar itself. When the fermentation has reached a certain point it is generally the custom to again tread the must in order to extract as much colour as possible from the skins. In order to preserve the sweet quality of the wine, fermentation is not permitted to continue beyond a certain point. When this is reached the wine is drawn from the lagar over a strainer or some similar arrangement into vats yielding from five to thirty pipes. The murk remaining in the lagar is then pressed by means of a lever or beam press with which this vessel is fitted. In order to prevent the wine from fermenting further and so becoming dry, from 4 to 5 volumes of brandy are added to every 100 volumes of wine in the vats. The alcohol employed for this purpose is as a rule of high quality and made solely from wine. When, after the approach of the cold weather, the lees have dropped, the wines are racked and a further addition of brandy is made. The second racking takes place in March or April, and the wine is now placed in casks and sent to Oporto, where it is stored in large over-ground buildings termed lodges. A further addition of brandy is generally added before shipment. The great bulk of the wine is stored for many years before shipping, but this does not apply to the commoner varieties, nor to the finest wines, which, being the produce of a specific year, are shipped unblended and as a vintage wine. The most famous vintages of recent times were those of 1847, 1851, 1863, 1868, 1870, 1873, 1878, 1881, 1884 and 1887. A white port is also made in the Alto Douro, and this, although little known in England, is exported in considerable quantities to Germany and Russia. The white port is grown in vineyards which are not quite so favoured as regards position as the red port growths. White port is made from white grapes, and a peculiarity of its manufacture is that the must is frequently fermented in the presence of the skins, which is most unusual in the case of white wines. This gives a certain stringency to white port, which is characteristic of the wine.
Diseases.—The Alto Douro has from time to time been sadly ravaged by the oidium and phylloxera. The former first made its appearance about the middle of the 19th century, and reached a climax in 1856, when only about 15,000 pipes, that is, about one-sixth of the usual quantity, was vintaged. In consequence of this, the exportation of port dropped from over 40,000 pipes in 1856 to about 16,000 pipes in 1858. Since then oidium has reappeared from time to time, but the remedy of spraying with finely divided sulphur, which was discovered at the time of the epidemic, has enabled the wine farmers to keep it under. The phylloxera, which appeared in Alto Douro in about 1868, also did enormous damage, and at one time reduced the yield to about one-half of the normal. At one time the position appeared to be desperate, particularly in view of the fact that the farmers refused to believe that the trouble was due to anything other than the continuous drought of successive dry seasons, but at the present time, after much expenditure of energy and capital, the condition of affairs is once more fairly satisfactory.
Port Wine Trade.—The port wine trade is of considerable importance to the United Kingdom not only because the chief trade in this wine is with that country, but also because a very large proportion of the capital invested in the industry is English. It is probable that the English capital locked up in the port industry amounts to some 2 millions sterling. In the period preceding the 'seventies of the last century practically the whole of the wine exported from Oporto came to Great Britain. Thus in the year 1864 there were exported to Great Britain 29,942 pipes and to the rest of the world 5677 pipes. The trade with the rest of the world, however, has gradually grown since then, the figures being as follows:—
Exports of Wine from Oporto.
| Year. | To Great Britain. |
To Rest of the World. |
| Pipes. | Pipes. | |
| 1874 | 35,753 | 20,778 |
| 1884 | 30,281 | 31,741 |
| 1898 | 41,093 | 69,932 |
| 1903 | 32,832 | 65,058 |
| 1906 | 34,356 | 80,934 |
The growth of the export trade from Oporto with the rest of the world is principally due to the enormous increase in the quantity of wine sent to South America, chiefly Brazil, but only a small proportion of this (probably one-eighth) is port wine proper. The bulk of it consists of wine from the Minho and Beira districts. These facts also account for the apparent anomaly that the exports from Oporto are much higher than the total production of wine in the Alto Douro. At the present time the average production of the Alto Douro is about 50,000 pipes. During the last decade it was at a maximum in 1904, when 70,000 pipes were produced, and at a minimum in 1903, when only 18,000 pipes were obtained. The value of the port taken by the United Kingdom was in the year 1906 over one million sterling, that is, rather less than half of the total value of all the French wines imported, but more than double the value of the total of Spanish wines.
The chemical features of interest in port are the relatively high proportions of alcohol (the bulk of the wine imported into the United Kingdom containing some 18 to 22% of alcohol), sugar and tannin. The sugar varies considerably according to the vintage, but as a rule amounts to from 7% to 15%.
Other Portuguese Wines.—The wines of the Alto Douro only form a small proportion of the total quantity of wine produced in Portugal. The main wine-growing district outside that of Oporto is in the neighbourhood of Lisbon. The chief varieties are those grown at Torres Vedras, which are of a coarse claret type; at Collares, where a wine of a somewhat higher quality is produced; at Carcavellos, at the mouth of the Tagus; and at Bucellas. In the latter district is produced a white wine from the Riessling grape, which is commonly known in the United Kingdom as Bucellas Hock.
As far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the Madeira wine industry is mainly of interest in that it was largely developed by Madeira. and is still chiefly in the hands of British merchants. The shipments to the United Kingdom, however, which reached a maximum in 1820, when over half a million gallons were imported, has fallen off to one-tenth of that amount, and the consumption in these islands was barely 20,000 gallons in 1906. This falling away in the taste for Madeira is partly ascribable to fashion and partly to the temporary devastation of the vineyards by the phylloxera in the middle of last century. The re-establishment of the vineyards and the consequent development of the industry did not, however, lead to a renewal of the trade on the former scale with this country. The output in 1906 amounted to 10,000 pipes (Madeira
