*** Welcome to piglix ***

Carcavelos wine


Carcavelos is a Portuguese wine region centered on the Carcavelos municipality in Estremadura region and includes land near the cities of Cascais and Oeiras. The region has Portugal's highest wine classification as a Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC). Located at the very southern tip of the Estremadura region, the region has a long winemaking history dating back to the 18th century when Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal owned vineyards here. The region is known for its fortified wine production, creating off dry, topaz colored wines that have nutty aromas and flavors. While once a thriving wine region, world-renowned in the 19th century for its tawny colored fortified wine, in the modern era Carcavelos has been devastated by real estate development in the suburbs of the capital city of Lisbon and nearby coastal city of Estoril.

While viticulture has likely existed in this region since Roman times, it was not until the Marquis of Pombal established the region as a winemaking center in the 18th century that Carcavelos came to be associated with wine. Pombal's actions were perhaps self-serving since he owned extensive vineyard on his estate in Oeiras. Prior to this, Pombal would sell his grapes to Port wine producers in the Douro, in violation of his own 1756 regulations establishing the Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro (General Company of Viticulture of the Upper Douro or C.G.A.V.A.D.) which aimed to guarantee the authenticity of Port by mandating that it be made completely from Douro grapes.


...
Wikipedia

...