Tavira

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The soils of the region include non-humic lithosols derived from Silves sandstones and grès, psammitic regosols, and red or yellow Mediterranean soils derived from sandstones and raña.
• The vineyards entitled to the Tavira DO are planted on sandier soils at relatively low elevations, on gentle terrain and sheltered from the winds.
• The southerly location and the protection afforded by the mountain barrier against cold northerly winds, combined with an amphitheatre-like south-facing exposure, give the area a markedly Mediterranean climate — warm, dry, and with little wind.
• Being a region of low rainfall and little wind, it displays a fairly uniform temperature range and a greater number of hours of heat, so that harvest begins earlier than in the other regions.
• In the municipality of Tavira, the relief is flat along the coast and highly rugged in the mountain zone, where some peaks exceed 500 metres in altitude, with the coastal, barrocal, and serra sub-regions clearly distinguished. (via Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0)

• During the Muslim occupation the Arabs cultivated the vine and exported the wine produced, and after the Reconquista the Christians took advantage of and expanded that economic organisation.
• The production of quality wines in the Algarve region was first recognised in 1980, which underpinned the establishment in 1994 of the Comissão Vitivinícola Regional Algarvia.

• The white wine generally displays a colour ranging from citrine yellow to straw, while the red has a ruby colour that with ageing evolves towards a topaz hue.
• The whites are normally delicate, soft, and aromatic, light-bodied and with a characteristic warmth typical of a hot-climate zone, while the reds are velvety, medium-bodied, fruity, low in tannin, and with a slight acidity.

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-A1449
• Official trade body site — Comissão Vitivinícola do Algarve