Dao wine
The origin of the art of wine cultivation and wine drinking can be traced to back to the ancient times, centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ when in order to appease the formidable deities, human beings organized ceremonies celebrating the glory of the gods were wine drinking was a significant means of celebrating joy and happiness. Since then nothing much ahs changed to date. Nowadays, almost all celebrations are incomplete without wines and other alcoholic drinks. Portugal has had a long association with wines and the custom of wine cultivation and production.
The Dao wine also known in Portugal as Vinho do Dao are popular variety of wines produced from both the red and white castas i.e. grape varieties. The Dao wines are obtained from the northern part of central Portugal in the Mondego and Dao river areas. These are mountainous regions having temperate climatic characteristics and these climatic factors have a positive effect on Dao wine cultivation as it protects the grapes or castas from the continental and maritime climatic influences. The Dao wine has been conserved and protected since the closing years of the 14th century. But it was only in the late 1908 that the region producing Dao wine was brought under the list of the Demarcated Wine Regions. The distinct flavor of the Dao wines is added to it by the red and white castas. Some of the kinds of white castas used include Cerceal Branco, Bical, Encruzado and some of the red casta varieties used include Rufete, Jaen, Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro etc. In fact, one of the castas used in its production like the Touriga Nacional are available only in Portugal and in no other part of the world. This is probably one of the reasons why according to many vintners, the Dao wines are the best Portuguese table wines, with the foremost among them being the ‘Alianca’ and the ‘Grao Vasco’.
