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British exporters built up the local wine trade after Britain went to war with France in 1678, losing access to French wines. The story goes that the British added grape brandy to the Douro wine to prevent it spoiling at sea. That made it 20 percent proof
-- almost twice as potent as table wine -- and especially sweet by halting fermentation while the wine is still fruity. Port has also drawn distinction from its upmarket price. The lower-grade ports, called ruby, tawny and late-bottled vintage, usually carry a price tag of around euro10-25 ($14-$35). A "vintage" port, so called because it came from a grape harvest that was exceptionally good, carries a heftier charge. The vintage is the Rolls-Royce of port wines, and something like the Symington's prize-winning 2007 version costs around euro100 ($140). Port gets better with age, and its price climbs with the years. The legendary 1963 vintage
-- the one served to President Obama -- comes in at around euro300 ($415). Taylor's Scion, from 1855, goes for around euro2,500 ($3,475) a bottle. The Douro Valley is one of Europe's smartest addresses for wine and one of the world's oldest demarcated wine regions, dating from a 1756 law.
Its steep slopes, slate terrain and sunny summers provide ideal conditions. Unique Portuguese grape varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, and Vinha Velha also set local wines apart. The vineyard estates, called "quintas" (pronounced KIN-tahs), are reached by narrow, winding roads that trace the contours of the Rio Douro, the Iberian peninsula's third-longest river which enters from Spain, where it is known as the Duero. During the fall grape harvest, local grape-pickers move slowly along the rows of vines that ripple uphill from the broad river. Starting just before the sun comes up over the surrounding high ridges, they dip their hands into the bushy vine leaves that are turning auburn and snip off heavy bunches of grapes that are sweet as jam. Some 30,000 farmers along the valley use generations of know-how to produce wine which runs like a thread through local history. They rely on the lump sum from the harvest to help see them through the year. Wine "is our daily bread," says 46-year-old Maria Augusta, taking a 9:30 a.m. break for a meal of bread and thick soup at the Symington family's Vesuvio vineyard, located between two 12th-century castles. Times for these workers are suddenly hard. The government has hiked taxes and cut welfare entitlements to save money as part of a euro78 billion bailout earlier this year that spared Portugal from national bankruptcy. At the same time, authorities have slashed permitted wine production levels this year by more than 20 percent. That measure aims to get rid of stocks left over as sales fell and that could drive the retail price lower. Port companies are trimming their costs and mechanizing production. Officials concede there's no quick fix, but nobody is despairing yet. The business has come through plenty of tough times since Romans planted vines in this patch of their empire they called Lusitania. "Port has endured very bad crises," says Isabel Marrana, executive director of the Association of Port Wine Companies. "It's resilient, it's a survivor. We have to do what our ancestors did ... and persevere."
[Associated
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