Dão – Central Portugal Wine Region

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Located in the center of Portugal, slightly below the Douro valley we have Dão, a mountainous region surrounded on three sides by mountains that has a long history of making wine and the home to the Touriga Nacional grape. It is landlocked at 150-450 m above sea level and it shares many of the grapes varieties that are used in the surrounding and more famous Douro valley. The reds from Dão are the most famous ones but the whites especially with the grape Encruzado is growing the popularity.  Dão is a DOC and became so in 1990 and the styles usually grown for reds representing 80% of the growth are made in the lighter peppery style to a fuller body showing a great range but the acidity is often high. As often is the case in Portugal blends are common even though monovarietal wines are being done. The DOC requires 20% Touriga Nacional as a part of the blend for the reds. Oak is also prevalent in both using Portuguese and french oak. There is also another Garrafeira designation which means at least 2 years in oak as well as having a maximum yield of 70 hl/ha.

The development of quality wine in the Dão region was previously hampered by the dictator Salazar which forced the use of co-operatives in the region. The practice of this meant that these co-ops have exclusive rights to all grapes and in turn the lack of competition caused the quality to suffer and often there was a lack of hygiene in the winemaking process further decreasing the quality. However, as Portugal entered the European Union 1979 monopolistic practices were discouraged and the Dão started to improve in terms of quality and here the Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz (tempranillo), Jaen, Alfrocheiro, Tinta Pinheira, Bastardo and Baga are planted even if the Baga-grape is more prevalent in Bairrada in the west.

The subregions of Dão of are:

  • Alva
  • Besteiros
  • Castendo
  • Serra da Estrela
  • Silgueiros
  • Terras de Azurara
  • Terras de Senhorim
Aveiro – The Venice of Portugal
 

In terms of cities, Aveiro may pique your interest as a city close to the sea called the Venice of Portugal with some beautiful scenery. Further inland you have Viseu which is relatively close to the Spanish border towards the cities of Salamanca on the path to Madrid or Bilbao depending on your directions. If we were to make a few mentions of wine from the Dão region the most famous would be Mateus which is a mass-produced off-dry sparkling rose which perhaps taints the quality aspect of the region. Wines from Dão are still very affordable and this was perhaps most clearly illustrated by Quinta de Cabriz being selected as one of the world’s top 100 wines by Global wines for around 6 euros and 85 points by Robert park when the average in this list was over 50 euros/pounds.

 

Cabriz – A wine that was one of the few affordable wines of Decanters list of top 100 wines

We are currently planning a field trip to the Dão region so please follow our instagram for when we update this post with more info and some wine recommendations as this post is likely to extend further in the near future.