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Food & Drink in the Algarve, Portugal
what to drink during your stay in the Algarve
The Wines of Portugal - The Dao Region
Bom Dia Algarve Retreaters & a Happy New Year to you all.
This, the first column of the new year sees a new series on the individual wine regions of Portugal and a look at some of the estates and producers around them. We will entitle this series - Meet the People, Tread the Earth, Discover the Wines.
 And we begin this month, with the Demarcated Region of Dao, correctly pronounced of course as Dung! You might like to email me with the responses you get should you ask a wine waiter for a bottle of this; that's assuming the wine list is good enough to include an example of the appellation. With an approximate area of 376,000 ha (hectares), or acres, this northerly region is located among very mountainous areas and valleys with soft hills and slopes. A cold and rainy climate in winter and dry in the summer, along with the above-mentioned relief, provides unique conditions for wine production.
In the Dao, the wine is the classic result of man's love of the earth. The production of the best Dao wines results in all the best characteristics of Portuguese wines and is one of the main benchmarks of traditional Portuguese viticulture. Here the locals say that `the wine flows through the earth's veins and the earth is in the people's hearts'. The fine quality is the result of the passionate dedication of the people, from the traditional wine press to the more modern technology. Without this relationship there would be no wine and it is so strong that it unites the aristocracy and the simple peasants into the same culture.
Dao is the name of both the river and of the region; an expanse of green, sunny and gently undulating slopes, where the wine started growing a very long time ago. It is recorded for example that Dom Henrique the Navigator took Dao wines `in caravels to Ceuta in 1415 where they drank it to celebrate their victory.
 The Demarcated Region of Dao offers much more than meets the eye. It is not a modern appellation, first demarcated in 1908. It attracts the visitor's attention for many reasons: firstly, the vineyards are often sheltered and camouflaged by pine trees, tucked away behind gorse and blackberry bushes, or hidden behind a wall. Despite the cohesive traits and the common denominator of the name, no two quintas (farm or estate) are identical. They all have their own quirks and individualism in producing their own Dao wine secret.
There is more to the wine than the importance of the geography of the area: the people with their sense of purpose. There is a landscape of charm, the tradition of a thousand year old culture. There is also the superb local cuisine, very essentially Portuguese, which like many regions, the local wines are designed to match.
 The region includes the municipalities of Arganil, Oliveira do Hospital e Tabua from the district of Coimbra; Aguiar da Beira, Fornos de Algodres, Gouveia e Seia from the district of Guarda; Carregal do Sal, Mangualde, Mortagua, Nelas, Penalva do Castelo, Santa Comba Dao, Satao, Tondela e Viseu from the district of Viseu. Here, in this latter, a recently refurbished, ancient, historic building has just opened as a solar to represent the local producers.
Of course, the production depends on the local weather conditions each year. Local people say that it is very common for summer to take its holidays in the winter and for winter to encroach well into summer. The result of this is that, of the half a million hls (hectolitres) of wine produced in an average (climate not quality) year, only 50% or just over will qualify for the classified Dao appellation.
The vineyards which produce Dao wines are planted on granitic lands usually of poor fertility. The different schist sites are mostly in the South and West of the Region, in an area considered marginal in viticultural terms - in other words, happily ideal for quality but not for quantity.
So we will take a look now at a couple of estates selected at random from recent visits to the region, beginning with
Quinta de Cabriz
Owned by Dao Sul - Sociedade Vitivincola S.A., a company established in 1990, the Quinta of Cabriz, an estate near Carregal do Sal, with its magnificent house and chapel from the 17th century, is nowadays one of the main promoters of the development of the region with the conversion of old vines and new plantations with modern viticulture techniques.
The cellar is equipped for the reception of manual harvest crates of 20kg, air-tight pneumatic presses, stainless steel fermentation tanks and centralised temperature control of the cellar.
 The storage cellar is located underground and contains currently around 250 oak barrels, of either 225 or 300 litre capacity, of which 20% is of American oak and 80% of French oak. The maturation of bottled wines is in these underground cellars with their have optimum keeping conditions.
The production here, in addition to the white and red wines includes sparkling wines, spirits and liqueur wines by the team of winemakers, which is composed of a trio of Carlos's; Lucas, Moura and Rodrigues.
Typically of the importance that wine tourism has brought to both this region and others, “Dao Sul” have included a restaurant, tasting and function rooms for group dinners and other events. The company has recently also acquired the estate of “Paço dos Cunhas” in Santar, where under the supervision of Prof. Rogério de Castro, 10ha have been planted with classic, typical regional varieties.
Quinta dos Carvalhais
Purchased by the giant SOGRAPE company, Sandeman & Mateus Rose amongst other brands, in 1989, the Quinta dos Carvalhais with typical Portuguese viticulture supported by a modern vinification, is producing wines of good quality.
The purchase of Quinta dos Carvalhais coincided with huge Sogrape investments in the Dao region, with direct intervention in the wine production of local growers and the building of modern vinification facilities. The planting of new vineyards using regional vine varieties has helped to revolutionise the viticulture of the Dao.
 One of the classic Dao wines that we can find here is bottled under the label, Grao Vasco, named after the famous Portuguese painter Grao Vasco (1480-1543), the pseudonym of Vasco Fernandes. The portrait of St. Peter, dating from the 16th century, one of the painter's masterpieces, is shown in the brand's label.
The history of the is wine is in fact much older than 1989, as in 1957 Vinícola do Super-Dao Lda, a small regional company first established in 1947, was bought by Sogrape, Vinhos de Portugal and changed its name to Sogrape Vínícola do Vale do Dao, which solely makes and sells wines from the Dao Demarcated Region.
The year 1990 saw the building of the wine centre at Quinta dos Carvalhais, a centre equipped with the most modern technological processes which changed the wine-growing landscape of the region and re-launched the old Grao Vasco wine brand.
 I would like to hear your experiences of Dao, or indeed Dung, wines and I am sure that we will be including some examples of the region, maybe even the rarer Brancos in addition to the Tintos, at one or more of our Portuguese events during 2007, where we hope to see you. For those of you in the Edinburgh area, these events include a major consumer tasting in the city at the end of March. If you would like the details of this, or indeed any of the other events listed below, or on our website which of course is www.wine-educators.com then please contact me via the site or by email to wineeducators@aol.com
Martin Ward
Wine Educators International
Monday 12th March 2007 - Taste Port at our Residential Wine Course at Denman College, Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Friday 29th June 2007 - Taste Portuguese wines at our Wine Weekend at Higham Hall, Bassenthwaite, Cumbria
Wednesday 18th July - Taste Portuguese wines with Food at our Residential Wine & Food Matching Course at Dillington House, Ilminster, Somerset.
If you would like to know more about Portuguese Food and Drink, why don't you dip into our Restaurants in the Algarve section and our series of articles on Portuguese Wines and Ports. We also feature some Traditional Portuguese Recipes and a glossary of useful Portuguese food & drink words and phrases
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