From Lisbon to Colares
Ξ October 29th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |
Getting around Lisbon is very simple. And it is just as easy taking a combination of train and bus for day trips to local wine producing areas, to the DOCs in Greater Lisbon. I visited Colares the other day, for example, with absolutely no difficulty. From the Rossio train station it is just over two euros for the train to Sintra, a worthy destination in its own right. Trains depart every 15 minutes or so. The ride is roughly 40 minutes long. Once in Sintra it is a euro and a half by bus to Colares, just a few miles further on.
The bus ride to Colares is itself quite thrilling. Full-sized municipal busses whip down a road almost too narrow for the two-way traffic of compact cars. Indeed, it is a great mystery to me why so few vehicles here bear no signs of collisions or fender-benders at all.
Colares is a small parish of the Sintra municipality with just over 7000 souls, according to 2001 figures. As a wine region, its history is quite dense, dating back to the 13th century. But it was in the 19th that Colares entered the more general European imagination when the parish escaped the devastating phylloxera epidemic that brought not only the balance of Portugal but the greater European continent to its knees. By virtue of their vines being planted in sandy soil, a habitation unfit for the offending insect, Colares has the lion’s share of ungrafted vines surviving in the whole of Europe. My understanding is that there are exists a very few hectares scattered in France, but it is the environs of Colares where these unique survivors remain in abundance. It is for this reason, among others to be discussed in another post, that the region was given its DOC status in 1908.
Of the vineyards, to say they are grown in sand requires significant qualifications. The Wines of Portugal, an official Portuguese wine industry text published in 1979, writes
“When planting grape vines, holes are dug in the sand to a depth of often three metres until ‘firm soil’ is found and the vines securely anchored.”
But from the same text is written this ambiguity,
“‘Sandy’ soil wines may only be marketed bottled but those produced on ‘firm’ soils may be sold in 5-litre demi-johns provided they indicate the designation of origin. They must, however, be blended with ’sandy soil’ wines.”
I shall try to discover the meaning of this distinction. Indeed, I shall provide details and photos when I return to the area in a matter of days. A full tour of vineyards and the adega is planned. But for my purposes on this occasion, it was the adega (wine cellar) that I came to visit, properly titled the Adega Regional de Colares. A cooperative, only wines made in the adega, on the premises, may carry the name Colares on their labels. Grapes are therefore brought in from the surrounding vineyards near the Atlantic for winemaking, all on shared equipment.
Owing to the luck of the draw I arrived on the very day a private tasting was planned! I had all of ten minutes to wander the grounds before the guests were to arrive. No amount of pleading would help. That is not quite true. As mentioned above, I have been granted a hosted tour and interview(s), the details of which I shall post in the fullness of time.
Much, much more to come.
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