Wines
Summary
The Colares Regional Winery, founded in 1931, is the oldest cooperative winery in the country. It currently comprises the majority of growers in the Demarcated Region of Colares, which is a very tiny region just west of Lisbon in the town of Sintra. It is run now by oenologist, Francisco Figueredo, who has done more than anyone in the last few years to keep (or put back) Colares on the map.
The region has a long history and is the second oldest demarcated wine region in Portugal dating back to 1908, with records of wine production dating back to the days of the Roman Empire. The region has gone from being the center of the wine world in the early 1900’s with several hundreds of hectares under vine, to having less than 20 hectares of vines today. Urban sprawl has been the main contributor to this devastation as real estate for development has influenced many growers to sell their plots since their kin are disinterested in carrying on with the farming.
Farming here is extremely labor intensive. Initially there has never been proper trellising systems in place. Vines were, and still are planted individually by digging several meters below the sand to reach the clay allowing vines to settle and grow as they are planted 300 meters away from the Atlantic ocean. The vines grow in a circular way out of the the ground. When the grapes form they will canes sticks are used to elevate the grapes preventing them from contact with the ground. Colares is famous for the red grape Ramisco, which is capable of aging for several years, as well as the white grape Malvasia.
