Douro DOC: ready to bloom?

It’s 25 years since Ramos Pinto took the pioneering step of telling the world – not to mention the neighbours – that the Douro should not limit its quality-focused ambitions to Port. Today that message has gained considerable momentum and inspired some ambitious projects, giving rise to wines that are every bit as charismatic and expressive of this unique landscape as their fortified counterparts.

The Douro in spring: a view upstream from Quinta do Crasto, just above its ancient Maria Teresa vineyard

Today Douro wine is serious business: figures for 2014 from the Port and Douro Wine Institute show that unfortified production now accounts for €114m in sales. That may be still be some way behind the €366m Port sales, but unlike Port, Douro wine sales are on a firm upward curve, led by Angola, Canada, the US and Brazil.

“In the last 10 years it’s been incredible the way that Douro wines have grown,” says IVDP president Manuel de Novaes Cabral. “There are interesting projects with interesting new people. Today we have hundreds of oenologists with not only a very good education but also international experience.”

Free from the quota and maturation restraints that depending on your perspective either protect or hamper Port, but certainly present a barrier to entry, Douro DOC wine has attracted young winemakers, many armed with the desire to break new ground. Their forces have been augmented by established Port producers such as Symington Family Estates, who recently planted an experimental vineyard to accelerate understanding of the Douro’s myriad varieties. This is just one example of how, with quarter of a century’s experience under its belt, the wine industry here is now busy exploring new ways to channel the character of the Douro and make a commercial success from grape growing in this challenging mountain environment.

Abomination or visionary? Lavradores de Feitoria’s Meruge

One example that has provoked considerable debate is Meruge, a Tinta Roriz-based expression from Lavradores de Feitoria, an association of 20 Douro producers, which currently produces 600,000 bottles a year across three different tiers. With this top level Meruge, which retails in the UK for around £25, winemaker Paulo Ruão – himself a former employee of Ramos Pinto – draws on grapes from some of the region’s highest, coolest vineyards in pursuit of freshness and aroma. The Burgundian-style bottle offers an early indication that this wine, first made in 2003, is offering something different – indeed, too different for some people. “We had a problem getting it registered as a Douro wine with the IVDP,” recalls Ruão. “In Portugal when we taste this wine it’s a fight – some people don’t like it.”

As a hot region that built its reputation on full-bodied red wines, the Douro was widely viewed as an unsuitable place to attempt high quality white wines. Ramos Pinto’s João Nicolau de Almeida remembers the scepticism when he introduced his first white expression under the Duas Quintas label, a blend of Viosinho, Rabigato and Arinto. “In 1992 no-one thought that white wine was a good idea,” he recalls. “They said I was crazy and there wasn’t enough acidity. They never thought it would go so well.” Today Almeida has enhanced this blend with the addition of Folgazão, which brings extra structure to the wine.

He expresses enthusiasm for the wave of producers who have embraced Douro wines over the last two decades, adding important commercial weight to his vision and exploring fresh avenues. “There’s still a long way to go and this generation is making a lot of new discoveries,” Almeida remarks. “My generation was more mechanised and about control; now it’s very seriously about being natural, the biology and biodiversity, leaving the place to tell the story.”

Over at Lavradores de Feitoria, his former colleague Ruão is keen to explore the possibilities of Siria – more commonly known as Semillon. Although this well-travelled variety has long been present in the Douro, Ruão has brought over a French clone that he hopes will make a good blending partner with either Sauvignon Blanc or Viosinho.

“Old whites from the Douro were not so fresh and a little bit alcoholic,” concedes Ruão, “but nowadays Douro white is completely different – everyone produces fresh and fruity whites.” In addition to noting the higher quality fruit that comes into the winery these days, Ruão also points to a tightened varietal focus, observing: “Everyone uses Rabigato, Malvasia and Viosinho and has abandoned grapes that don’t give freshness.”

While many of the Douro’s white wines come from the high, dry, somewhat less steep vineyards of the Douro Superior, Quinta do Crasto has had the diggers out this year clearing scrubland at the very top of its estate in the region’s Cima Corgo heartland. “It’s fascinating,” says Crasto winemaker Manuel Lobo de Vasconcellos of the results being achieved by Douro whites. “I couldn’t imagine I was going to produce a white wine with natural acidity.” This latest step will mark the producer’s first white wine project outside the Douro Superior, sticking to the high, cooler sites that – in contrast to Port production – Vasconcellos maintains are crucial for success with this style. His white wine journey has also involved some finessing in the cellar. “The Burgundy style of toast can be too heavy for a Douro white,” observes Vasconcellos, who prefers to top and tail his lightly toasted French oak with acacia wood. “It can give too much greenness but when it’s mixed with oak then it really gives good freshness,” he explains.

Like the Symingtons, the Roquette family who own Quinta do Crasto have established a joint venture with one of Bordeaux’s big names, in this case Jean-Michel Cazes of Lynch-Bages, called Roquette & Cazes. “The trade of experience is fantastic,” comments Vasconcellos, contrasting Bordeaux’s quest for ripeness with the Douro’s pursuit of freshness.

Alongside the learning curve provided by this project and some promising experiments with Syrah in the Douro Superior, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Crasto’s portfolio is the two wines produced from its ancient, field blend vineyards: Vinha Maria Teresa and Vinha da Ponte. Located just below the winery, the 107-year-old Maria Teresa vineyard covers 4.7 hectares and contains, so far as the Crasto team and university researchers have been able to establish, 49 different grape varieties. “It’s very exciting for me as a winemaker because it’s difficult to copy,” remarks Vasconcellos.

As for Vinha da Ponte, also made from centenarian vines, Crasto recently hosted Domaine de la Romanée Conti’s Aubert de Villaine, who had tasted the wine and been sufficiently struck by its character that he decided to visit the vineyard. Forget critic scores, it’s difficult to conjure up any higher endorsement for the allure of Douro wines today.