Bucelas DOC
White wine region known for cool fermentation and historical English popularity.
via Wikipedia: Bucelas DOC · see source
Bucelas, once called Bucellas, is a Portuguese wine area with the country’s top DOC classification. It sits in the Lisboa wine region, south of Arruda DOC, and is known for making white wines through cool fermentation. The vineyards grow in mostly loam soils. Its white wines gained fame in England during the Elizabethan era and again in Victorian times, when Londoners sometimes called them Portuguese hock due to their resemblance to German Rhine Rieslings.
Quick Facts
- Classification
- Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC)
- Location
- Lisboa wine region, south of Arruda DOC
- Soil type
- Predominantly loam
- Historical popularity
- Elizabethan era and Victorian age in England
- Alternative historical name
- Portuguese hock
Facts from the source article.
History
Viticulture in Bucelas, located just north of Lisbon, has likely existed since Roman times. Historically a white wine, during the Elizabethan age it was popular among the English as a fortified wine, with wine historians believing that the wine was likely the same 'Charneco' wine mentioned by William Shakespeare in the play Henry VI, Part 2, with Charneco being a local village in the Bucelas region. Eventually Bucelas was made as a non-fortified white wine, with British interests in the wine being revived during the Victorian age following the Peninsular War.
During his time in Portugal, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington discovered the wine and imported large quantities back to his estate in the United Kingdom. With Wellington's favor, soon Bucelas was a fashionable wine on the London wine market where it was known as Portuguese Hock. During the 20th century, urban sprawl and development contributed to the decline of viticulture and winemaking in the region. By the early 1980s, all the vineyard lands in Bucelas was owned by a single wine estate with a poor reputation for quality.
Towards the turn of the century, following a wave of enthusiasm and revival for Portugal's indigenous grape varieties, new winemakers started to set up operation in the area to produce wines from the local grapes.
Grapes and winemaking
The principal grapes of the Bucelas region includes Arinto and Esgana Cão. In the Victorian age, Bucelas' association as Portuguese Hock led many in the wine industry to assume that its primary grape, Arinto, was somehow related to German wine grape Riesling. Ampelographers in the late 20th century were eventually able to disprove any relation between the two grapes. A characteristic of Arinto and its blending partner Esgana Cão, a name loosely translated to mean dog strangler, is their ability to retain high levels of acidity even in the warm sub-Mediterranean climate near Portugal's coast. In recent years, Bucelas winemakers have been experimenting with different winemaking techniques including production of late harvest and sparkling wines made according to the traditional method.
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