Wine in the Algarve

It’s time I did a few articles about Portuguese wine. There is a long tradition of wine making in Portugal, but things have changed out of all recognition over the course of my lifetime.

First, the areas put down to vines have changed quite substantially. Fifty years ago the Alentejo was a region mainly producing corn. But over the years corn growing has succumbed to the advance of the grape.

On the other hand the Algarve was home to a small wine growing area around Lagoa.

Way back when I was keen on starting my own vineyard I gave myself a birthday present of The World Atlas of Wine, by Hugh Johnson. It is still a treasured possession. It shows the Algarve wine area, but the Alentejo is completely blank.

But only fifty years ago this is how Johnson speaks of the wine industry in Portugal.

“ Even more than Italy it is the country of groaning ox-carts, of dappled sunlight through arbours of vines, of treading the purple must, of maidens bearing pitchers, of songs handed down for centuries.”

If you drive through the main street of Lagoa you can still see the large building which was effectively the centre of the wine trade in the south. However, the wine regions have changed quite considerably. When I first came to live here wine production was minimal. Apparently in 1910 there were only sixteen producers. Now there are over fifty, and there is a move to push wine tourism.

When I was still trying to find a place suitable to settle down I lived mainly in the Silves area. In fact I bought a building plot on top of a hill just outside the village of Odelouca. As you drive down the original 124, from Porto de Lagos to Odelouca you cross over the river, and if you look up you will see a large white villa on top of the hill in front of you. That used to be mine. In fact, I had it built.

While I was planning that operation I lived in another house half a mile to the north-west. At the time a frenchman had bought the surrounding fields with the intention of planting vines and creating a new vineyard. Each day I watched as the project came to fruition, and now I buy wines from that vineyard from the local supermarket. It’s called Quinta do Frances. Here’s a pic of a bottle I bought yesterday.

When I first settled here I spent some considerable time checking out the wines. I found the new Alentejo wines very varied and so turned my attention elsewhere, and ended up preferring the wines from the Peninsular de Setubal, which is that bulge just south of the river Tagus, and Lisbon.

In fact it’s time I wrote about the wines I have discovered here. The quality has improved immensely over the past twenty years. There are, of course, the Port wines in the north, and

Madeira from that island. Both are well known around the world as quality wines, but there is a lot more to discover grown and vinefied in places most people have never heard of. Those wines deserve to be better known.

Okay, next week let me spend some time on what are my local wines, made here in the Algarve. I’ll then move on to other areas where some rather nice wines are made. I hope you’ll join me on this voyage of discovery.