Inside the mountainous region in the Center of Portugal, usually between 400 and 700 meters high, sits the Dão Wine Region. The region is one of the oldest established wine regions in the country and is now a ‘Denominação de Origem Controlada’ (DOC or ‘Controlled Denomination of Origin).

It encompasses the cities of Viseu, Mangualde, Nelas, Tondela, Sátão, Penalva do Castelo, Santa Comba Dão and Carregal do Sal, and is the home of the Touriga Nacional vine, one of the best known grape types used for Port wine.

Protected by the mountains from the Atlantic winds, giving it a temperate climate, and with a soil rich in schist and granite, the region produces one of the best wines in Portugal. It is thus known as the ‘Portuguese Burgundy’.

The Dão wines are gastronomic wines, with an exceptional acidity of complex and delicate scents. It fits perfectly with the local food, like Serra da Estrela cheese or goatling, due in part, to its complexity, elegance, balance, and maturity.

There are many great wines from the Dão region, with them being awarded in several international wine contests, such as the ‘2014 Wine and Spirit Competition.

It is said that Nature was particularly generous to Dão. So enjoy the incredible flavors of these wines and find out what this region has to offer!

Portuguese Wine

History of Dão Wine

As usual, when it comes to wine in Portugal, the story can be traced back thousands of years, with the Phoenician traders and the Roman colonists bringing wine and grapes to the region. This cultivation kept on going even during the Moorish period and after they left, the Christian monks kept this historical legacy.

In the 19^th century, the Dão region had a mostly international market, exporting most of their wines, and these grapes were used throughout Europe to cure the vine diseases, such as phylloxera until the region itself got affected.

But the Dão as a specific wine region is considered to have been born by the hands of the aristocrat and winemaker João de Sacadura Botte Côrte-Real, known as “the most enlightened viticulturist of his generation”. He understood the uniqueness of the region and wanted to create a separate wine region there. The modernization of the winemaking process and the increased standards of the region’s wine were all fruits of Côrte-Real’s endeavors.

The region was officially instituted in 1908, on the province of Beira Alta, as a ‘Região Demarcada’ (Demarcated Region). It was the first of this kind that produced non-liquor wines in Portugal, and the second demarcated wine region overall. In 1990, it became a DOC, with specific rules for its production and protection.

In the 1940s, as a way to improve the region’s wine quality and promote a sense of national identity, Portugal’s Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar ordered that only co-operatives were allowed in the region. These would have exclusive rights to buy the region’s grapes and for the whole winemaking process. The private businesses could only buy the finished product.

This, however, created stagnation as many of the co-operatives started making inferior quality wines, having un-hygienic practices, and producing less wine for sale. This made the regions of Douro and Alentejo have to compensate for this shortage of wine, improving their own production, keeping their quality, and attracting the interest of wine experts and the world’s wine consumers.

In 1979, however, with Portugal adhering to the European Union, these rules had to be withdrawn. Now, there are new wine ventures in the region, creating a rebirth on one of the most known wine regions of the country.

Wine tourism is starting to become famous in the region, with the Dão Wine Route. The ‘Solar do Vinho do Dão’, the headquarters of the Wine Commission, also works as a visitor center to the whole region and offers wine tastings of Dão wines.

Region and Subregions of Dão 

The region has around 20.000 hectares of wine production spread around 376.000 hectares of land. It spreads through the districts of Coimbra (in Arganil, Oliveira do Hospital and Tábua), Guarda (in Aguiar da Beira, Fornos de Algodres, Gouveia and Seia) and Viseu (in Carregal do Sal, Mangualde, Mortágua, Nelas, Penalva do Castelo, Santa Comba Dão, Sátão, Tondela and Viseu proper).

The soil is predominantly enriched with granite and schist, usually of low fertility. The vines are usually made on terrains with an altitude of around 800 meters, even though they grow in a larger quantity at around 400-500 meters.

The terrain is very hilly, and is surrounded by 3 large mountain ranges (Serra da Estrela, Serra do Caramulo, and Serra da Nave) that protect the region’s climate from outside influences, like the humidity from the Oceanside and the winds from the interior. The climate is, thus, good for wine production. It’s temperate but cold and rainy in the winter and very hot and dry in the summer.

The rivers of the region, the Dão, Mondego and Alva, also adjust to the region’s terrain, sliding through the mountains and valleys.

There are 7 subregions within Dão, which you can see on the bottle label next to the word ‘Dão’. The climate changes a bit in each of these regions creating different styles of wine with their own characteristics. These are:

• Alva
• Besteiros
• Castendo
• Serra da Estrela
• Silgueiros
• Terras de Azurara
• Terras de Senhorim

Types of Grapes and Wine in Dão 

There are many grape types in the Dão region, like the Bastardo, Barcelo, or Terrantez, but the main ones are:

• Touriga Nacional: the type considered the noblest one, which produces full-bodied wines with a good alcohol content, intense aroma, and are good for aging. It produces red wine.
• Encruzado: the noblest grape type when it comes to white wines. It has a good alcohol content as well, with complex, fresh, and relatively dry scents.
• Alfrocheiro Preto: it creates wines with a fine aroma that gets more and more complex with time. It’s a type that produces red wines.
• Jaen: it has a regular alcohol content, with intense scents of very ripe fruit. It has good quality and soft tannins and is a red wine grape.

This diversity is due to the qualities of the region’s soil and climate, as well as the production techniques and know-how of the people that produce it. This creates a very good quality wine that is appreciated throughout all of Portugal.

80% of the region’s production is of red wines, explaining why most of the main grapes are red wine grapes. Also, the DOC regulations mandate that at least 20% of the production has to be from the Touriga Nacional grape.

You can find almost all types of Dão wines:

• Red: These wines are ruby-colored, with an intense ripe fruit aroma and a complex and delicate flavor. They are full-bodied and with exceptional acidity, having very good potential for aging and a velvety taste. Red Dão wines tend to be very tannic because of their long period of maceration during winemaking.
• White: The citrine yellow color of these wines and their fruity, complex, and delicate aroma will immediately call you for a sip. Their balanced acidity and fresh and smooth taste with a lush ending will make you want another one. Back in the day, the white wines from this region were over-oxidized and full-bodied, but modern winemaking techniques have helped produce more fresh, fruity, and perfumed wines.
• Rosé: Recognizable for their pink color, these light wines with a balanced acidity are known for having a very fresh and persistent taste and a floral and fruity scent that will make you feel calm and relaxed.
• Sparkling: The bubbly from Dão can be of any of the above colors: either ruby, citrine, or pinkish. What defines it is its fine bubbles, as well as its fruity smell and fresh, balanced, and persistent flavor. Together with its elegant texture and good acidity, this is the perfect recipe for a sparkling wine with high sophistication.

There are also different designations for the top wines, such as ‘Dao nobre’ (noble Dao), for the top reserve wines, and ‘Garrafeira’, which requires, for red wines, at least 2 years aging in oak and at least 13% alcohol content, and for white wines, 6 months aging in oak and 12% alcohol content.

Dão Wine Suggestions: Best Wine in Dão

Based on the contest “Best Dão Wines” of 2020, organized by the Regional Wine Commission of Dão, in which 41 wines were awarded, these are some of the awarded brands:

• Allgo
• Abanico
• Casa de Santar
• A Descoberta
• Adro da Sé
• Quinta dos Carvalhais
• Tesouro da Sé
• Adega de Penalva
• Quinta da Ponte Pedrinha
• Soito

Best Wine Tour in Dão

From Porto: Historical Viseu Regional Tour and Wine Tasting

Visit the rich Viseu district and learn about its history and heritage! Go around the region and visit cathedrals, churches, Roman baths, and museums. Ride a cable car to the mysterious ‘Cava do Viriato’ and discover the ancient tradition of winemaking of the place while having a taste of the amazing Dão wines.

Book Viseu Regional Tour and Wine Tasting

Probably when you think of the beautiful Portuguese capital, you would think of the wine country. But yes, Lisbon indeed has its own wine region and it’s the 3^rd biggest wine region in size!

Originally known as the Extremadura, the Lisbon wine region encompasses a number of subregions, each with its different characteristics. Some of the best known are Alenquer and Arruda, which produce excellent red wines, Lourinhã, which is one of the few in Europe that produces wine spirits, Bucelas, that gives us the delicious white and sparkling wines from Lisbon, and Óbidos, that is known for having some of the best sparkling wines in the Iberian Peninsula.

The region produces a wide variety of wines due to the existence of both national and international grapes, as well as the diversity of soils and microclimates in the region.

A few years back, the region was known for producing wines in great quantity but little quality. And it’s true that the region is one of the most productive regions in the country, being the 2^nd biggest producer in the country. However, the quality has increased a lot ever since they modernized the region and restructured the vineyards and now the region is known for its good price-quality ratio.

Even though it is yet not linked with the Portuguese wine country, Lisbon wines are a great choice if you want a good wine for a relatively cheap price. And if you are ever in the Portuguese capital, it’s great for wine tourism since the vineyards are pretty close to the city!

Guide to Lisbon

History of Lisbon Wine

The Lisbon wine region started off by being named ‘Extremadura’, an old name for the region of Lisbon, Leiria, and Setúbal in 1993. The region didn’t at the time encompass all the territory it has now. It slowly started to incorporate nearby DOCs, such as Óbidos, Alenquer, and Torres Vedras.

The category ‘Vinho Regional Estremadura’ incentivized the producers to study even more the different grape types and their potential in the region. This made this region have many noble national and international grape types, giving it great wines!

Having already incorporated all other DOCs, Colares, Bucelas, and Carcavelos were integrated and it changed its name to ‘Lisbon’, one of the reasons being the confusion with the Spanish region of Estremadura, which is also a wine region.

The region suffered a gradual growth, in part due to the idea that Lisbon produces wines in a huge quantity but little quality. However, nowadays, Lisbon has great wines, especially in terms of price/quality ratio! This was because the producers completely modernized the region and restructured the vineyards. New grapes were introduced that were chosen for their quality instead of yield and these made the region grow in quality while keeping its known great quantity production.

It soon became a big wine exporter as well, with a production of 1 million hectoliters (around 15.4% of the total Portuguese production), 70% of which are exported. There is only one region that produces more than Lisbon, which is the traditional Douro region, and Alentejo is usually tied with Lisbon.

Nowadays, most of the wines produced in Lisbon have the ‘Vinho Regional Lisboa’ seal, since the DOC laws for the region are very restrictive in the grapes used and the places planted. There are 185 registered producers, with 30 of these producing it, bottling and selling themselves and the others selling to the region’s cooperatives.

However, this only accounts for certified, regional (‘Vinho Regional’) or DOC wines. This means that there are many more producers of other non-certified wines in the region since in Lisbon only 30% of the produced wines have any of these seals.

Therefore, we can see that even though the region was little known and fairly recent, it soon became one of the largest producers and a region with very good wine with its particularities.

Portuguese Wine

Lisbon Wine Region

The Lisbon wine region has approximately 18 thousand hectares, in which the IGP Lisboa (‘Indicação Geográfica Protegida’ or Protected Geographical Indication) and 9 DOCs are situated. These DOCs are:

• Bucelas: Created in 1911, this region only produces white wines, mainly from the Arinto grape. These wines were very sought after internationally, especially by the English nobility and monarchy. They have a balanced acidity, floral aromas and they do not lose their qualities as the years go by.
• Carcavelos: This region is known for its fortified wines, known for being dry, tawny colored, and having a nutty aroma and flavor.
• Colares: In the south region of Lisbon, this area is very close to the sea and its vineyards are placed in calcareous or sandy soils. The wines are usually made from the Ramisco grape.
• Encostas d’Aire: The last region to suffer the consequences of Lisbon’s modernization. But when it came, new grapes started to be planted, like Baga or Castelão, or Arinto, Malvasia or Fernão Pires when it comes to white wine. Many other grapes were already planted in the region, like Chardonnay or Touriga Nacional, and these kept being cultivated. However, the introduction of new grape types altered the wines and they now have better quality, with more color, body, and intensity.
• Lourinhã: It’s the only DOC in the country (and one of the 3 in all of Europe, together with Cognac and Armagnac) dedicated solely to the production of wine spirits. It has unique properties due to the distillation process that it goes through, a process that every ‘aguardente’ has to go through to be awarded the Lourinhã DOC seal.
• Alenquer: The region that produces some of the most prestigious DOC wines in the Lisbon region, either red or white. This is a region that is protected from the winds coming from the ocean, which helps a lot in the grape maturation process and in the production of highly concentrated wines.
• Óbidos
• Torres Vedras
• Arruda

These last 4 regions, in the central region of Lisbon, were the ones that got most of the investments in the region, modernizing the vineyards and planting new grape types. Just like in the Encostas d’Aire DOC, the wines from these regions gained a lot from the introduction of the new grapes.

The Colares, Carcavelos, and Bucelas DOCs were very important wine producing places, but nowadays they practically only serve a historic purpose. This was because these regions are too close to the Lisbon proper and the need to urbanize these places made the regions’ vineyards practically disappear, unfortunately. For example, the Colares DOC usually produces less than 10.000 bottles per year.

The wines that are produced in this region but don’t comply with the DOC norms, will be awarded the IGP Lisboa seal, classified as Vinho Regional de Lisboa’ (Lisbon Regional Wine).

The region as a whole has different terrain types which, together with the different DOC laws, makes it obvious why there are different types of wines in Lisbon.

The closeness to the Atlantic Ocean creates humidity and makes it vulnerable to ocean winds, which gives the grapes unique characteristics. The region’s mountains serve as walls to keep these conditions inside the region, which creates the amazing Lisbon wines. Therefore, the climate here is usually temperate, with fresh summers and soft winters.

However, the vineyards on the interior are protected from the Atlantic winds and conditions by the mountains, making the climate a bit colder.

Grape Types in Lisbon

In the region of Lisbon, both national and international grapes are cultivated.

From the national ones, the two fundamental and traditional ones would be Arinto (as we’ve seen, used mainly in Bucelas) and Ramisco (characteristic of Colares). In red wines, the Trincadeira, Castelão, Tinta Miúda, Baga, and Touriga Nacional are some of the main ones, and for white wines, Malvasia Fina, Alvarinho, Seara-Nova, Vital and Fernão Pires are the most well-known.

As for the international grape types, the most widely known and used would probably be the Chardonnay and the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Lisbon Wine Suggestions: Best Wine in Lisbon

If you want to try these amazing wines, here are some brand suggestions according to the Lisbon Wines Contest of 2019:

• Página (Romana Vini)
• Quinta do Convento de Nossa Senhora da Visitação
• Zavial Óbidos (Vidigal Wines)
• AdegaMãe
• Aproximar (Adega Coop. de Dois Portos)
• Confidencial (Casa Santos Lima)
• 5ª Lagar Novo (Luís Elias Gonçalves de Carvalho)
• Capicua (Cerrado da Porta)
• Empatia Vital (Adega Coop. da Labrugeira)
• Quinta do Boição (Enoport – produção de Bebidas)
• Figurativa XO (Adega Coop. da Lourinhã)
• Quinta do Rol XO (Sociedade Agr. Quinta do Rol)

Best Wine Tour in Lisbon

If you are traveling through the Portuguese capital and making the most of its wonderful architecture, historical sites, and culture, booking this wine tasting tour is a must. You will visit two historic Portuguese wineries where you will learn about their history and explore the amazing vineyards and the villages nearby. You will also get the chance to try the local wines as well as artisanal olive oil and bread. See a bit more of the real Portugal while staying in the big city!

Book Wine Tastings in Lisbon