Portugal & Oenophiles

If you’re a Oenophil or Enophil, then you’ll be in your element in Portugal. The meaning of Oenaphil or Enophil derives from the Greek for ‘wine’ and ‘love’, It may be a small country but its history with wine goes way back, and the variety is vast. Portuguese wine is the result of traditions introduced to the region by ancient civilizations, such as the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and mostly the Romans. Portugal started to export its wines to Rome during the Roman Empire.

So as a wine lover you will be able to bathe your tastes buds with the variety of wine available in Portugal. There are 14 wine producing regions, including Madeira and the Azores, and 250 grape varieties. To the further point North-West where you have ‘Vinho Verde’, the largest wine producing region in Portugal. Of its native grapes comes a unique white wine, light, fresh, young and delightfully aromatic, full-bodied Alvarinho grape, the Loureiro, sometimes also the Arinto and Trajadura grape with a typically fresh and aromatic. Further south we have the region of Estremadura, now denominated the Lisbon Wine Region, west and north of Lisbon, with the grape variety of Alicante Bouschet, Aragonez, Castelão, Tinta Miúda, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Trincadeira for the Reds, and Arinto, Fernão Pires, Malvasia, Seara-Nova and Vital for the Whites. The Tejo Region, the Penisula of Setubal, Alentejo and the Algarve, only a mention of the few of the many other regions and varieties here to discover.