Situated at the foot of the Sintra mountains and very close to the sea, the village of Colares gives its name to an ancient, tiny, and truly unique wine-growing region.
Colares is just 25km (15.5 miles) from the city of Lisbon, with vineyards under 3km from the Atlantic Ocean "where the land ends and the sea begins."
Colares is the westernmost appellation of origin (DOC) in continental Europe, and with less than 20 hectares of vineyards, one of the smallest DOCs in Portugal .
Since 1147 the town of Colares was already of great importance, and since then, numerous official documents attest the presence of vines in the region. Over the centuries, the prestige of the wines from Colares has been remarked by the most important personalities in Portuguese history. In the 16th century, the "Colares wine" was highly regarded on ships traveling the world due to its longevity and ability to withstand very long voyages.
All the way until the 19th century, the quality of the wines from Colares would continue to be recognized, including by the Mestre Ferreira Lapa, a renowned agronomist, professor and agricultural researcher. Among his many remarks he said "the altitude and the proximity of the ocean give Colares the cold and humidity of the Minho region" (in Northern Portugal, bordering Galicia in Spain).
According to the book "O Grande Livro do Vinho" by J. Duarte Amaral, "the profile of Colares wines are between the "matured" (aged) wines and the "vinho verde" (young) wines. They would have the softness of the former and the freshness and vivacity of the latter."
“Colares wines have all the requirements and qualities of red wines from the Médoc in Bordeaux. It is the most French wine Portugal has." Mestre Ferreira Lapa
The notoriety of Colares wines is intrinsically linked to the Ramisco red grape variety, which is thought to have been introduced to the region in the 13th century by order of King Afonso III, possibly from France.
The phylloxera, a microscopic bug that eats the roots of grapes and devastated much of the world's vineyards, arrived in Portugal around 1865, yet it would not affect Colares. Wonder why? Simply because most of the vines in Colares were planted on sandy soil, with a deep layer of sand (up to 5 meters or 15 feet deep) between the surface and the clay where the roots are, and the phylloxera insect could not dig deep enough to reach the vines' roots.
Unsurprisingly, this greatly boosted the region's viticulture in the region, which didn't see the need to graft their vines with the phylloxera-resistant American (Vitis Americana) rootstock. That is why even today, the region's sandy vineyards are all "free-standing", guaranteeing the genetic "purity" of their grape varieties.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1908 to be precise, King Manuel II granted Colares the status of Demarcated Region, legitimizing its importance in Portugal's wine production, which at the time had roughly two thousand hectares of vineyards.
Since then, a combination of factors became massive headwinds for the region. Among these factors were the modernization of other Portuguese wine regions, the strong reduction in wine demand from Brazil, strong pressure from urban developers, prohibitive costs of artisanal wine practices especially for low-yielding varieties, the extended aging time required for wines made with Ramisco, and wild climate variations impacting the quality of the harvests. All of this would help reduce the area in Colares planted with vineyards from 2,500 acres in the 1940s, to about 25 acres 10 years ago.
Fortunately, things are changing, and the future seems much brighter. There is a renewed interest in Colares wines by young producers, entrepreneurs, and wine connoisseurs around the world.
On our next post we'll explain how the climate and soil (and grape varieties) in Colares help produce truly unique wines. Sign up below to receive new complementary articles directly in your email.
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