Portuguese icon wines: 10 names you need to know

The following list details 10 producers creating Portuguese icon wines with two tasting notes for each producer listed at the end; the first, higher-scoring wine is their must-try icon wine; the second is their benchmark style.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Portuguese icon wines to try

Adega Cartuxa

Wines bearing the Pêra-Manca label are steeped in history.

Rooted in Evora, Alentejo, they were mentioned in a letter from Evora Town Council to King João II in 1488 and, reputedly, aboard Pedro Alvares Cabral’s ship when he claimed Brazil for the Portuguese crown in 1500.

During the 19th century, Pêra-Manca reds won gold medals in Bordeaux. In 1990, Adega Cartuxa revived the label for its ambitious flagship red and white wines, celebrating native grapes. They swiftly won cult status.

The full-bodied white – Hermitage-like with age – was at the vanguard of prestige modern white winemaking in Alentejo.

Alvaro Castro

When monopolistic legislation concentrated Dão wine production in the hands of cooperatives for half a century, Alvaro Castro’s father dropped the winemaking baton.

Fortunately, his son’s take on the region’s potential was shaped by family friend Alberto Cardoso Vilhena, a luminary of Dão’s viticulture and oenology institute: Centro de Estudos Vitivinícolas de Nelas (CEN).

‘Full-bodied, never heavy or with much alcohol, always with acidity,’ his wines were Castro’s ‘target’ when he resumed winemaking at Quinta da Pellada in 1980, leading a vigneron renaissance.

Flagship Touriga Nacional, Carrocel, is the ultimate tribute to Cardoso Vilhena, a champion of the region’s emblematic grape.

Casa Ferreirinha

Meaning ‘House of little Ferreira’, Casa Ferreirinha has arguably outshone its parent, Ferreira Port House.

Upon foundation in 1952, the first dedicated Douro wine producer made Barca-Velha, Portugal’s icon of icons. Today, chief winemaker Luís Sottomayor has 170ha at his disposal (including Quinta da Leda, the backbone) ‘to compose the best blend possible’.

Built to age (indeed only declared after several years’ bottle-ageing), Sottomayor sticks to the original formula, sourcing grapes from different elevations for concentration, balance and structure.

Following the most draconian selection, only 20 vintages of Barca-Velha have been declared. ‘When it arrives, it says I’m here,’ glows Sottomayor, comparing its presence to a lion.

José Maria da Fonseca

Owned by the Soares Franco family since the 1820s, José Maria da Fonseca is Portugal’s oldest, most venerable producer of Moscatel de Setúbal, Portugal’s other world-class fortified wine.

Created in 1849, the Moscatel de Setúbal brand (made from Muscat of Alexandria) won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1855.

‘Our Moscatel de Setúbal was consumed in Europe’s principal royal houses,’ says António M Soares Franco.

Rare stocks of exceptionally concentrated, complex centenarian wines are highly sought after.

Sourced from the Serra da Arrábida clay/limestone slopes, this vinous nectar retains remarkable freshness. Maceration on skins enhances structure. Lengthy ageing in barrel lends great concentration and complexity.

Luís Pato

Since producing his first Baga in 1980, Bairrada’s boutique pioneer has put this highly strung grape variety on the map.

The self-described ‘classicist and rebel’ conceived his flagship red with typical derring-do. Challenged by a friend to grow Baga on less favourable sandy soil, he planted ungrafted (Pé Franco) high-density vines at his family estate, Quinta do Ribeirinho in 1988.

These shy-bearing vines produce fuller-bodied, more concentrated Baga, with firmer tannins and acidity than the region’s classic chalky clay (which produce Pato’s other Bagas, including Vinha Barrosa and Vinha das Valadas, his second, riskier ungrafted vineyard).

Formidable, Quinta do Ribeirinho Pé Franco is exceptionally long-lived.

Niepoort 

Founded in 1842 by Franciscus Marius van der Niepoort, in 1991 his great-great-grandson Dirk Niepoort added a fresh, now equally prestigious string to the Port house’s bow, launching Redoma – Niepoort’s first Douro wine.

Unlikely as it sounds, a trip to the dentist inspired Charme, a boundary-pusher for elegance. But then Jan-Erik Paulson is also a leading authority on mature wines.

Niepoort says Paulson’s bottle of La Tâche 1991 prompted him to ask: ‘How is it possible that the wine is so aromatic, yet so fine?’ Picked early, Charme is fermented with 100% stems to ‘fool everyone and make the wine look like it has more acidity than it actually does’.

Quinta do Crasto

Niepoort is not the only producer to take inspiration from Domaine Romanée-Conti.

‘We want Vinha Maria Teresa to be Portugal’s DRC,’ says Miguel Roquette of Quinta do Crasto.

His family, long-term Port wine growers, produced their first Douro wines in 1994 and, by 1998, had ring-fenced two flagship parcels, Maria Teresa and Ponte. Located on the steep terraced slopes of a spur overlooking the Douro river, Maria Teresa enjoys the most dramatic location.

With over 50 native varieties, this centenarian field blend vineyard produces wines of mind-blowing opulence, balance and longevity in top years. Sourced primarily from both parcels, Vinhas Velhas Reserva – a smart buy – is robust, less ‘glossy’.

Quinta do Mouro

Miguel Louro acquired Quinta do Mouro in Alentejo in 1979 with help from his poker game winnings.

The winning streak deserted the dentist when he tried to rear cattle, but returned after he planted the vineyard in 1989, gambling on Cabernet Sauvignon in addition to Portuguese varieties.

Louro took his inspiration from Bordeaux, Barolo and Rioja, as well as local classics, including Mouchão (whose lead grape – Alicante Bouschet – also steers Mouro’s blends).

Grown at 400m elevation on lean, schist soils, Quinta do Mouro and, especially Quinta do Mouro Rótulo Dourado (‘Gold Label’, launched in 2000), are well-structured, long-lived and complex.

Quinta do Vale Meão

For centuries, the Douro Superior was a seat of agriculture, not viticulture. Harbouring ambitious plans to make fine table wines there, Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira acquired Quinta do Vale Meão in 1877.

She did not see her plans for the 30th, final estate in her glittering Douro portfolio come to fruition. However, named after the diminutive lady (‘little Ferreira’), Casa Ferreirinha Barca Velha was originally – and for many years – made and principally sourced from Meão.

Owned by her great-great-great-grandson, Francisco Javier de Olazabal and his children since 1994, they started making Quinta do Vale Meão in 1999 which, like Barca Velha, gloriously vindicates Dona Antónia’s vision.

Viúva Gomes

The old-fashioned spelling of Colares (Collares) on the beautiful labels of Viúva Gomes bottles speaks to the distinguished winemaking history of this region, dating back to 1908. And you can taste it.

Having bought the winery lock, stock and barrel in 1988, the Baeta family still sell ethereal examples of this austere classic from the 1960s.

Continuing the faith, they champion the unique Ramisco (red) and Malvasia de Colares grapes from the DOC’s precious remaining 12ha of ungrafted vines, now with sympathetic elevage in used French oak.

For the new Pirata label, old vine cuttings transplanted from sand to calcareous soils provide ‘a different perspective from the classics’, says winemaker Diogo Baeta.

See tasting notes and scores for 10 Portuguese icon wines to try

Wines are listed alphabetically by producer. The first, higher-scoring wine is their must-try icon wine; the second is their benchmark style.

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