Portuguese Wine For Beginners

For most people, even for many wine experts, Portuguese wine is uncharted territory. Aside from Port, the occasional bottle of Vinho Verde, or even Mateus Rosé, it’s rare to stumble upon Portuguese wine outside of a specialist shop. Even then you’re only really likely to find a few bottles of Portuguese wine and, so few that Portugal is rarely even given it’s own section: normally they’re lumped in the Spanish section.

Portuguese wine is definitely worth exploring, though. For serious wine lovers it’s an exciting country to navigate as the wine is usually made from grape varieties that aren’t really found anywhere else in the world.

It’s also a wine that’s likely to appeal to bargain hunters. Portuguese wine doesn’t command the same prices that other European countries do and your money will go a lot further if you buy Portuguese rather than French, Spanish, or Italian wine.

The biggest challenge with Portuguese wine isn’t just getting to grips with the different regions or grape varieties – there are more than 250, so it’s definitely a challenge – but actually getting your hands on Portuguese wine. Portuguese wine is growing in popularity, and shops are beginning to stock it, but it won’t take long to get through everything they have in stock. Thankfully there are an increasing number of online Portuguese wine specialists and, failing that, there are also plenty of cheap flights to Portugal.