Do Tejo

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• Three distinct production zones — Campo (alluvial), Bairro (undulating argilo-calcareous), and Charneca (sandy) — underpin the full edaphic diversity of the region.
• The Campo (Lezíria do Tejo), adjacent to the river, has highly fertile alluvial soils; it is the zone par excellence for white wines made from Fernão Pires.
• The Bairro, lying between the Tejo Valley and the foothills of Porto de Mós, Candeeiros, and Montejunto, has argilo-calcareous soils over undulating relief, favourable to Castelão and Trincadeira.
• The Charneca, on the left bank of the Tejo, has sandy soils and podzols derived from poorly consolidated materials, yielding below-average crops but favouring the refinement of the wines.
• Moderate climate: mean temperatures between 15.5 °C and 16.5 °C, approximately 2,800 sunshine hours per year, and mean annual rainfall of 750 mm, highest in the north around Tomar.

• A recognised wine-producing region since the Middle Ages; in the 13th century exports to England reached nearly 30,000 pipes.

• Whites: citrine to golden in colour, with youthful fruity and floral aromas that evolve towards tertiary characters with age.

• In the Bairro zone, argilo-calcareous soils favour red varieties such as Castelão and Trincadeira; in the Charneca, sandy soils promote the refinement of the wines.

Facts drawn from the cahier's terroir-link section (Lien au terroir) by automatic interpretation — see the the caderno de especificações.

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-PT-A1544
• Official trade body site — Comissão Vitivinícola Regional do Tejo