The two growers putting the sparkle into Portuguese fizz

Portuguese sparkling wines deserve to be better known. The quality of Portugal’s fizz would outstrip many Italian proseccos or Spanish cavas, thanks to the efforts of two passionate winegrowers.

The first is Celso Pereira, winemaker for Vertice sparkling wines. I recently met him in the Douro Valley in northern Portugal where he makes an exceptional range of traditional method fizz from high altitude vineyards 650m above the river. The Douro is well known as the home of port and robust red table wines – but in recent years white wines have emerged from cooler, north-facing vineyards in the Alto Douro.

The story of Vertice is extraordinary. It began in the mid-1980s when the owners of California’s most famous sparkling wine producers, Schramsberg, arrived to investigate the potential of fizz-making in Portugal.

Schramsberg’s Jack and Jamie Davies visited all the regions of the north from the home of Portuguese fizz, Bairrada, up to Douro and the Minho. They settled on the area around Alijo in Douro’s Cima Corgo as most suitable for its granite and sandy soil, great thermal amplitude and high altitude.

“Interestingly they did not want to make fizz from chardonnay or pinot noir, but focused on Portugal’s native grapes,” says Pereira. “They studied 25 varieties doing small micro-vinifications. Within four years they narrowed it to white gouveio, codega and malvasia fina grapes and one red touriga franca working with about 40 growers around Alijo – “then over the years we added white viosinho and rabigato grapes”.

Winemaker Celso Pereira, who was born in Angola, is the man behind the Vertice creation.

“The key is to get healthy grapes with body and acid, but the weather is a challenge for us. We have great diurnal temperature difference on the Alijo plateau with 30 degrees by day and 15 degrees by night

which allows us to retain grape acidity, but in recent years summer temperatures have been increasing,” he says.

Yet Pereira manages to produce 100,000 bottles of sparkling wine from native grapes – with his Millesime particularly impressing our group of tasters as a serious match for champagne. One of the secrets behind his success is his use of part ferment in old barrels he imports from Burgundy. His range of Vertice fizz is a one-off.

The second man who is helping to put Portuguese sparkling wine on the map is Luis Pato, also known as “Mr Baga”. Pato is based in Bairrada region, where 70 per cent of Portuguese sparkling wines are made. This area south of Oporto, 20km from the Atlantic coast, has sandy and chalky clay soils, a cool maritime climate where the wine styles are fresher, but less minerally than in the Douro.

Pato, a chemical engineer by trade, was determined to tame the local red baga grape, which has been planted in Bairrada for eight centuries. “To cope with the tannic baga, I devised a method of using the first early picked crop for my sparkling wine to reduce the yield and concentrate my reds. I find the sandy soils give grapes with good acid, but baga grows best on chalky clay to give more body,” says Pato.

Pato is a relentless innovator. He experiments with two fizz methods: traditional with second ferment in bottle and the riskier Antigo ancient method without disgorgement of the lees. He has also created the first “natural” fizz in Portugal with no sulphur addition – vinho pan. Like

Pereira, Pato is determined against the odds to put Portugal on the world’s quality sparkling wine map.

Douro: Vertice Millesime Espumante Brut 2011

Biscuity, yeasty aroma with floral undertones, intense ripe, sweet, creamy citric fruits with good depth and a long, crisp, dry finish – just 6 g/l dosage. A remarkable vintage fizz made from a blend of five Portuguese grapes, part oak ferment and three years lees ageing.

£19.95, Wine Line, Edinburgh, 07757 291440, www. thewineline.co.uk

Douro: Vertice Gouveio Espumante 2010

Extraordinarily focused fizz with limey fruits, crisp, very dry and very focused linear wine made from the gouveio grape. Depth of fruit comes from its part ferment in barrel with five years lees ageing.

£21.95, www.thewineline.co.uk

Douro: Vertice Pinot Noir Espumante 2008

Deep complex Blanc de Noirs. Very winey, rich cherry fruits with minerally depth, complex with quite prominent oak from Oregon oak maturation and creamy depth from five years lees ageing.

£26.95, www.thewineline. co.uk

Bairrada: Luis Pato Maria Gomes Espumante Nv

Pato’s best-selling fizz is the sweetest of his range made from white Maria Gomes grapes planted on sandy soils, it has elegant floral notes, limey undertones; crisp, light and charming.

£14.99, Valhalla’s Goat, Glasgow; Drinkmonger, Edinburgh; St Andrews Wine Co

Bairrada: Luis Pato ‘Informal’ Vinha Pan Espumante Rose 2014

Made from red baga planted on chalky clay soil; burnt orange colour, biscuit depth, rich rounded, sweet and sour raspberry fruits with a full rich lingering finish. Very good. ■

£14.49, www.ministryofdrinks. co.uk

Join Rose’s Champagne v Sparkling Wine Tastings on 1 November in Edinburgh, on 16 November in St Andrews and on 12 December in Glasgow, prices

from £42, www. rosemurray brown.com