Colares is a

Portuguese wine Portuguese wine was mostly introduced by the Romans and other ancient Mediterranean peoples who traded with local coastal populations, mainly in the South. In pre-Roman Gallaecia-Lusitania times, the native peoples only drank beer and were unfami ...

region centred on the Colares parish in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populat ...

. The region has

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

's highest

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

classification of '' Denominação de Origem Controlada'' (DOC). Located along the southwestern Atlantic coast, vineyards in the area are protected from the strong ocean winds by

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

y dunes. In the 1940s, vineyards covered about 2,500 acres but have since been reduced by suburbanization to 50 acres. Between 1934 and 1994, only the local co-op could use the Colares appellation. Because grapevines there are grown directly in the sand, and phylloxera aphids cannot live on sand, Colares vineyards are some of the only European vines that are not grafted upon American rootstocks. The ungrafted

Ramisco Ramisco is a red Portuguese wine grape variety that is planted primarily in the Colares DOC. As a varietal, Ramisco produces very tannic and astringent wines. J. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Wine Course'' Third Edition pg 148 Abbeville Press 200 ...

vines of the Colares region are some of the oldest in Portugal. The region is known for its deep colored, full bodied red wines that are high in astringent

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'' ...

s.T. Stevenson ''"The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia"'' pg 331 Dorling Kindersley 2005

Grapes

The principal grapes of the Colares region includes

Arinto Arinto or Arinto de Bucelas is a white Portuguese wine grape planted primarily in the Bucelas, Tejo and Vinho Verde regions. It can produce high acid wines with lemon notes. Synonyms Arinto is also known by the synonyms Arintho, Arintho du Dao, ...

, Galego Dourado,

Jampal The Yambina were an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland, whose traditional lands lie inland (westwards) some distance from Mackay. Country Yambina lands included Logan Creek south of Avon Downs. They ran east to the Denham ...

Malvasia Malvasia (, also known as Malvazia) is a group of wine grape varieties grown historically in the Mediterranean region, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and the island of Madeira, but now grown in many of the winemaking regions of the world. ...

and

. Red wines, which make up 75% of production, are grown from Ramisco grape and are aged over ten years before being marketed. White wines, grown from a local variant of Malvasia, are not aged as long.

References

{{coord missing, Portugal Wine regions of Portugal Portuguese products with protected designation of origin

Grapes

See also

References