Jeropiga is the name given to a traditional alcoholic drink of Portuguese origin that is prepared by adding aguardente to grape must. [1] [2] The addition is made in the beginning of the fermentation process, making it different to another Portuguese traditional drink, the abafado, in which aguardente is added during the fermentation process. [1]
The usual given ratios for the confection of jeropiga are of two parts of must to one part of aguardente or brandy. [3] [4] The must's natural fermentation process is interrupted by the addition of the alcohol. [5] [6]
Jeropiga traditionally accompanies the magosto autumn festivals, [7] celebrated also in northern Spain and Catalonia, where the festival is known as Castanyada. Jeropiga is home-brewed and drunk throughout the year in Trás-os-Montes and the Beira regions in Central Portugal.
Historically, jeropiga has been added to Port wine to increase its sweetness, [8] [9] in a practise that is still applied today to some fortified wines. [5] The historic use of jeropiga mixed with brandy and elderberries as a means of coloring in red wines has also been recorded. [8] Nineteenth-century English writers largely dismissed jeropiga when discussing the port wine trade, with W. H. Bidwell calling it an "adulteration used to bringing up the character of ports". [3] In 1844, the English wine merchant Joseph James Forrester anonymously published A Word or Two on Port Wine, a pamphlet that, among other criticisms made to the wine trade in the Douro region, denounced the use of jeropiga in wine. [10]
Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, has been added. In the course of some centuries, winemakers have developed many different styles of fortified wine, including port, sherry, madeira, Marsala, Commandaria wine, and the aromatised wine vermouth.
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented fruit. Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruits and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Though wine can be made from a variety of fruit crops such as plum, cherry, pomegranate, blueberry, currant and elderberry, it is most often made from grapes, and the term "wine" generally refers to grape wine when used without a qualifier.
Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with caramel colouring to imitate the effect of ageing, and some are produced using a combination of ageing and colouring. Varieties of wine brandy can be found across the winemaking world. Among the most renowned are Cognac and Armagnac from south-western France.
Port wine or simply port, also known as vinho do Porto, is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties.
Mulled wine, also known as spiced wine, is an alcoholic drink usually made with red wine, along with various mulling spices and sometimes raisins, served hot or warm. It is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas. It is usually served at Christmas markets in Europe, primarily in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Nordics and eastern France. There are non-alcoholic versions of it. Vodka-spiked mulled wine can be found in Polish Christmas markets, where mulled wine is commonly used as a mixer.
Pomace spirit is a liquor distilled from pomace that is left over from winemaking, after the grapes are pressed. It is called marc in both English and French, but "grappa" in Italian and "bagaço" in Portuguese. In Spanish it is called orujo. Alcohol derived from pomace is also used as the traditional base spirit of other liquors, such as some anise-flavored spirits. Unlike wine brandy, most pomace brandies are neither aged nor coloured.
Maury is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) for fortified vin doux naturel wines made in the Roussillon wine region of France. Almost all wines are red, made from at least 75% Grenache noir (Garnacha). Other permitted grapes are Grenache blanc, Grenache gris, Macabeu (Macabeo), Malvoisie du Roussillon (Tourbat), Syrah, Muscat and other local varieties. Although the grapes are different, they are used and marketed very much like port. It is made in the communes of Maury, Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet, Lesquerde, Tautavel and Rasiguères. The AOC was granted in 1936.
Aguardente (Portuguese), or aguardiente (Spanish), is a type of distilled alcoholic spirit that contains between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume (ABV). It is a somewhat generic term that can refer to liquors made from various foods. It originates from and is typically consumed on the Iberian Peninsula and in Iberian America.
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 unfamiliar with wine production. Portugal started to export its wines to Rome during the Roman Empire. Modern exports developed with trade to England after the Methuen Treaty in 1703. From this commerce a wide variety of wines started to be grown in Portugal. In 1758, one of the first wine-producing regions of the world, the Região Demarcada do Douro was created under the orientation of Marquis of Pombal, in the Douro Valley. Portugal has two wine-producing regions protected by UNESCO as World Heritage: the Douro Valley Wine Region and Pico Island Wine Region. Portugal has a big variety of local kinds, producing a very wide variety of different wines with distinctive personality.
Touriga Francesa is one of the major grape varieties used to produce port wine. Touriga Francesa is lighter and more perfumed than Touriga Nacional, adding finesse to the wine. Touriga Francesa has been described by Jancis Robinson as playing "Cabernet Franc to Touriga Nacional’s Cabernet Sauvignon". It is a cross of two other indigenous Portuguese wine grape varieties Mourisco tinto and Touriga Nacional. Touriga Francesa is quite similar to Touriga Nacional, needing harsh conditions to keep vigor down as it gets on the steep arid slopes of the Douro. It is usually trained low to the ground under one of the Royat systems. Yields are medium (1,5 kg/vine), not as bad as Touriga Nacional.
Wine fraud relates to the commercial aspects of wine. The most prevalent type of fraud is one where wines are adulterated, usually with the addition of cheaper products and sometimes with harmful chemicals and sweeteners.
The classification of wine is based on various criteria including place of origin or appellation, vinification method and style, sweetness and vintage, and the grape variety or varieties used. Practices vary in different countries and regions of origin, and many practices have varied over time. Some classifications enjoy official protection by being part of the wine law in their country of origin, while others have been created by, for example, growers' organizations without such protection.
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.
The history of Portuguese wine has been influenced by Portugal's relative isolationism in the world's wine market, with the one notable exception of its relationship with the British. Wine has been made in Portugal since at least 2000 BC when the Tartessians planted vines in the Southern Sado and Tagus valleys. By the 10th century BC, the Phoenicians had arrived and introduced new grape varieties and winemaking techniques to the area. Up until this point, viticulture was mostly centered on the southern coastal areas of Portugal. In later centuries, the Ancient Greeks, Celts and Romans would do much to spread viticulture and winemaking further north.
The Douro Wine Company was a government oversight organization established by the Portuguese Prime Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal to regulate the trade and production of Port wine. Established in 1756, one of the first official duties of the company was the delineation of the boundaries of the Douro wine region. This act essentially made the Douro the world's first regional appellation. While the boundaries of the Chianti and Tokaji wine regions were outlined in 1716 and 1737, respectively, neither of these regions were "technically" appellations in the sense of being subjected to continued government control and regulations. Under their charter, Pombal invested an immense amount of control in the Douro Wine Company to regulate all exports of Port, set production quantities limits, fix maximum and minimum prices for grapes and to serve as sole arbitrator in any disputes between vine growers and Port shippers. In 1761, the company was further granted a monopoly on the sale of brandy which was used in the fortification process of Port winemaking. The Douro Wine Company continued to operate to 1833. Today, many of it functions have been deregulated with the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto or being the official regulating body of Port wine and Douro table wine production.
The Quinta classification of Port vineyards in the Douro is a system that grades the terroir and quality potential of vineyards in the Douro wine region to produce grapes suitable for the production of Port wine. In Portuguese, a quinta is a wine producing estate, which can be a winery or a vineyard. While other wine classification systems may classify the winery, the Douro quinta classification is based upon the physical characteristics of the vineyard. The classification system is run by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP) and shares some similarities to the classification of Champagne vineyards in that one of the purposes of the system is to ensuring that vineyards producing grapes with the highest quality potential receive a high price. A secondary function of the quinta classification is the establishment of permitted yields for production. Quintas with a higher classification are permitted to harvest more grapes than a vineyard that received a lower classification.
Richard Mayson is a British author and expert on fortified wines and the wines of Iberia. He is series editor for the Infinite Ideas Classic Wine Library. He is the author of Lowry's Lamps, published by Unicorn Press and was Pro-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield from 2017 - 2021.
Churchill's Port is a port wine company based in Porto, founded in 1981 by John Graham, who named the company after his wife, Caroline Churchill.
W. & J. Graham's, or simply Graham's, is a producer of port wine. It is one of the most important of the port names and it is necessary for Graham's to declare a vintage for the year to be considered vintage by the port industry. Founded in 1820 as a consequence of the Graham family firm receiving a load of Portuguese wine as payment for a debt, the Graham's port business continues to operate today under the ownership of the Symington Family Estates who purchased the brand in 1970. As well as vintage port, Graham's produces a range of wines, including Six Grapes, a reserve port, Quinta dos Malvados, named after the estate purchased by the company in 1890, and various single harvest ports, including the 1882 Ne Oublie Tawny, named after the Graham family motto and at the time one of the most expensive wines for sale. The company received a Royal Warrant in 2015.
Fernando Nicolau de Almeida (1913–1998) was a pioneering Portuguese oenologist, best known for developing the Barca Velha red wine, one of the most expensive wines in Portugal.