Lagoa

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The southerly location, the protection afforded by the mountain barrier against cold northerly winds and the south-facing amphitheatre exposure make the climate of this region markedly Mediterranean.
• The region's average sunshine exceeds 3000 hours per year, combined with a warm, dry and little-windy climate with very limited thermal amplitude.
• Soils suited to production include non-humic lithosols of sandstones, Silves sandstone or similar, and normal and para-hydromorphic sandy regosols.
• There are also red or yellow Mediterranean soils of sandstones and raña, or related deposits, and podzolized soils of sands and coarse sandstones.
• The vineyards suited to DO Lagoa production lie further inland in the region, protected to the north by the mountain range and in an area of greater slope, being less subject to maritime influence.

• During the Muslim occupation the Arabs planted vines and exported the wine produced, an economic practice later taken up and expanded by the Christians after the Reconquest.
• The production of quality wines in the Algarve region was first recognized in 1980, leading to the establishment in 1994 of the Comissão Vitivinícola Regional Algarvia as guarantor of the certification and regulation of Algarve wines.

• The white wines are clear or slightly opalescent, ranging in colour from citrine to straw yellow, with some robustness but smooth and very fruity.
• The red wines have a ruby colour that evolves toward a topaz hue with ageing and show themselves velvety, full-bodied, fruity but not very floral, low in acidity and warm.

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

All appellations in Portugal

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-PT-A1450
• Official trade body site — Comissão Vitivinícola do Algarve