WineRegionsOld WorldOther Old WorldPortugal
VINHO VERDE
Vines that virtually grow on trees, trellises, up telegraph poles and along
fences - on anything, in fact, to take them above the ground - produce the
grapes that make Vinho Verde, the wine of the Minho. Training the vine in
such a way enables the smallholders - and there are more than 60,000 of
them in the Minho - to grow the cabbages, maize and beans that the families
survive on, and to produce grapes, which are either sold to large wineries
such 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 professionally
run quintas, where the vines are neatly trained on cruzeta trellises, seven
or eight feet above the ground. Only in the Minho can one see pickers going
to 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 a
low alcohol content (about nine per cent) and high acidity, which is why
it is called verde or "green". Bottling takes place very early
to retain as much freshness as possible and to encourage a malolactic fermentation
in the bottle, which results in some degree of petillance, though this can
be anything from a semi-sparkle to barely a prickle: More red Vinho Verde
is made than white, but virtually all of that exported is white and, more
often than not, fizzed up (sparged) and sweetened.