WineRegionsOld WorldOther Old WorldPortugal
VINHO VERDE
Vines that virtually grow on trees, trellises, up telegraph poles and alongfences - on anything, in fact, to take them above the ground - produce thegrapes that make Vinho Verde, the wine of the Minho. Training the vine insuch a way enables the smallholders - and there are more than 60,000 ofthem in the Minho - to grow the cabbages, maize and beans that the familiessurvive on, and to produce grapes, which are either sold to large wineriessuch as Sogrape or Aveleda, or made into wine locally and sold to tourists.In addition to these small holdings, there are a growing number of professionallyrun quintas, where the vines are neatly trained on cruzeta trellises, sevenor eight feet above the ground. Only in the Minho can one see pickers goingto the harvest with ladders, a sight more reminiscent of hop-picking.
How Vinho Verde is made
When picked, the grapes should not be fully ripe, for Vinho Verde has alow alcohol content (about nine per cent) and high acidity, which is whyit is called verde or "green". Bottling takes place very earlyto retain as much freshness as possible and to encourage a malolactic fermentationin the bottle, which results in some degree of petillance, though this canbe anything from a semi-sparkle to barely a prickle: More red Vinho Verdeis made than white, but virtually all of that exported is white and, moreoften than not, fizzed up (sparged) and sweetened.