The history of Port Wine -> Bar do Binho

The finest Port is produced from grapes grown on the steep and rocky slopes of the Upper Douro and its tributaries. Vines have been grown on these remote hillsides since pre-Romans times.

In the 17th Century British traders, cut off from their supplies of Bordeaux by frequent wars in France, took a liking to the full flavoured, robust wines of Portugal. Under the Methuen Treaty of 1703, England granted lower duties to Portuguese wines than to those of France and Germany, becoming for over a century the principal market for the wines of the Douro Valley.

But these wines did not travel well, so the traders added brandy to "fortify" them against the rigours of their Atlantic sea voyage. Before long pure grape spirit was added during fermentation and Port, as we drink it today, was created.

The pionners of the Port trade soon found the fortifying process did far more than just protect the wine. It improved it, giving it the power to mature into something unique, tranforming in the cool, peaceful lodges at Vila Nova de Gaia, across the Douro from Porto (Oporto), into the opulent and complex wine that we know today as Port.

The distinctive character of Port does not come only from its method of prodution. Like that of every great classic wine, it is also born of an association of climate, soil and grape variety unique in the world.

Separated from the sea by the Marão mountains and protected from the rainy winds of the Atlantic, the Douro valley has a climate of baking, dry summers and severe winters. It is a land of austere beauty.

The vineyards are dizzyingly steep: the vines must be planted on tiers of walled terraces, towering one above the other like the steps of the Pyramids, the product of centuries of Herculean labour.

To make new terraces in this rocky terrain, dynamite is often needed to blast away great outcrops of schist, the slate-like stone wich forms the bedrock of the Douro's best vineyard soils. The vine roots can dive 40ft down through rock fissures in search of water, draining the very essence of the soil into every grape.

The Douro boasts a wealth of traditional grape varieties. Among the finest are the heavily-scented Tourigas - Touriga Nacional and Touriga Francesa - producing wine of enormous scale and concentration; the Tinta Roriz with its firm tannins and distinctive cedary nose; the supple, flowery Tinta Barroca; and the Tinto Cão, one of the oldest varieties cultivated in the Douro Valley.