Talented winemaker’s epic journey of discovery

Jan 22 2010 by Helen Savage, The Journal

TO BE asked to select just eight bottles to represent your country’s wine must be like picking your desert island discs.

The gifted young Portuguese winemaker Tiago Alves de Sousa relished the challenge, although he admitted: “It was tough. Every region is doing its stuff and there were so many options. I tried to pick wines that were representative of different regions and in different price ranges, but I’m happy with my final choice.”

Tiago was employed to show the British wine trade something of the amazing diversity of Portuguese wines through a series of special tastings, organised by Viniportugal, the official body that represents Portuguese wine growers. I caught up with him at Jesmond Dene House, the venue for the Newcastle leg of his tour.

He chose well. Some of the wines were outstanding. With the exception of a perfectly nice Syrah (Shiraz) that might have come from anywhere, all the wines were utterly, distinctively and deliciously Portuguese.

For a country with maybe 300 different indigenous grape varieties, Portugal is refreshingly easy to understand. There are, Tiago, reminded us, three main geographical parts of the country. The relatively cool, damp north, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean; the warmer, drier, hotter mountainous areas, including his own home region of the Douro Valley and then the vast, gently rolling lowlands in the south, the hottest climate of all, where the grapes ripen most quickly, with higher sugar levels and less acidity.

There are just 11 defined regional wine zones in Portugal and 29 appellations for quality wine. Compare this with France – Burgundy alone has 100 appellations. And some of the appellations have recently been simplified in an attempt to make it even less complicated.

Some appellations are huge. The Douro Valley, for example, covers around 40,000 hectares. The six family estates, run by Tiago with his father Domingos – a total of around 110 hectares – offer a huge variety of site, slope, and climatic conditions.

“There are so many options,” Tiago enthused, “and we want to show that diversity.”

I asked if he had a favourite grape variety. “Maybe Tinta Amarela,” he replied, “but really the Douro is not about single varietals, it’s the blend that matters, and we can use up to 20 or 30 different varieties in one wine.”

In times past all the varieties were planted together in a single vineyard and harvested together.