Summary: Alcoholic beverages are plentiful, varied, and tasty in Portugal
On average, Portuguese alcohol consumption is slightly higher than Americans, though less than their European neighbors.
Neither of us usually consumes more than maybe a single glass of wine per week. While in Portugal, we had at least 2 drinks every day including wine, port and other spirits and cocktails.
Beer
Neither of us drinks much beer, but we took a liking to a Portuguese Beer called “Super Bock.” You could order a “mini,” which was just 20cl (a little under 7 oz.). Bottles and beer glasses in this diminutive size were readily available, and we enjoyed several during our trip.
Liquor, Cocktails, and Other Fun Drinks
I developed a taste for Licor Beirão, which is the most consumed spirit in Portugal. It is made from a double distillation of seeds and herbs, including mint, cinnamon, cardamom and lavender.
It has a colorful history going back to the 19th century when it was originally sold as a medicinal cure for stomach aches. I consumed Beirão at least once as a digestif and found it satisfying and effective.
Licor Beirão or simply “Beirão”
I was greatly dismayed to find that Beirão has only a couple of distributors on the east coast of the U.S. So, I will have to carefully ration the one duty-free bottle I carried home until I can find a way to obtain more.
Ginja (or Ginjinha) is another popular liquor in Portugal. Often made from sour cherries and served in tiny, edible chocolate shot cups, you can see ginja bars and windows on the sidewalks of busy Lisbon and other Portuguese cities.
Poncha is a popular traditional drink on Madeira. It is mixture of liquor made from sugar cane, honey, white sugar, and usually a citrus juice, although we also tried some that had passionfruit juice. Beware this tasty drink as the alcoholic content is much higher than it tastes!
Another cocktail popular on Madeira is the Nikita. This blended, frozen drink is made from fresh pineapple and/or pineapple juice, vanilla ice cream, and either beer or white wine. It tastes somewhere between a Piña Colada and a Pineapple Julius.
At one cafe we ordered a “white wine sangria,” which we’d never seen or tasted before. It was so delicious that we asked for the recipe, which the server readily wrote down:
Unfortunately, we could not read her writing, so we had to have our hotel concierge rewrite it for us.
Wine
We are not knowledgeable about Portuguese wine. We did enjoy sampling wine and port in city tasting rooms as well as at a couple vineyards. We visited one Douro Valley vineyard that has been owned by the same family going back at least 300 years!
This winery still crushes the grapes by pouring them into a large stone basin and having people crush them underfoot. They know that mechanical crushing is popular, but they believe physically trampling better exposes and mixes the grape skins, pulp, and juices and releases more flavor. I would love to be present to watch this centuries-old tradition!
After finding out there are over 250 wine varietals grown in Portugal, we realized we’d have little chance, even after three weeks, of getting to the point where we could recognize and choose a suitable Portuguese wine to go with our meal. We simply asked our servers for recommendations, and they always delivered.
Port Wine (vinho do Porto)
Port is the only Portuguese wine I had ever seen in U.S. markets.
I knew a little about port before this trip. I knew it was a “fortified wine” and that the two main types were tawny and ruby. The ruby ports I had tasted were sweeter. The few tawny ports I had tasted before this trip hadn’t really appealed. That was to change.
Like Champagne, authentic port may only be produced in a specific region — in the case of port, it must come from the Douro Valley of Portugal. Although Wikipedia claims, “In the European Union as well as in the United States, only wines from Portugal are allowed to be labelled ‘port,'” I know for a fact that there are U.S. winemakers selling fortified wine called “port.”
Basically, port wine is made by adding a neutral, high-alcoholic content grape spirit (something like 70% alcohol) to the wine to halt fermentation. Some call the spirit “brandy,” but since it has no flavor, I find this misleading. The wine is often aged in barrels, and the result has both a higher alcoholic and sugar content than typical wines.
Over 100 varieties of grapes may be used to make port wine, and the difference between ports depends on whether they aged in stainless steel, concrete, or wooden barrels, whether they are allowed to oxidize before bottling, the type of grapes, etc.
White and Rosé Port
Before this trip, we were completely unaware of the existence of white and rosé ports.
White ports are made from white grapes and are not made every year. The growing season has to be ideal (colder winter and hotter summer) for the winemaker to choose to make white port. We tasted several and fell in love with them.
Rosé Port was invented recently in 2008. It starts out like a ruby port, but the amount of time the wine is exposed to the grape skins is limited (I think I recall in one case it was just 24 hours). This gives the port its lovely rose hue.
When in Porto, we visited a museum promoting rosé port. It was more fanciful and amusing than informative, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Madeira Wine is a fortified wine made on the island of Madeira and predates Port wine by a couple centuries.
Madeira has a winemaking history going back to the 1400s, and was a major port of call for ships travelling to and from the New World. Wine barrels were exposed to heat and movement on voyages, and so merchants started adding grape spirits to help keep the wine from spoiling en route. When an unsold shipment of wine returned to Madeira, it was discovered the wine, fortified with spirits and exposed to the heat and movement actually improved the taste of the wine.
In the modern production of Madeira wine, I have learned that younger blends (3-5 years old) are produced using artificial heat to accelerate the aging process. Older blends, because of how they are made, may last years or decades, and will still be good even after opening.
Madeira wine was popular in colonial America, and it was a favorite among America’s founding fathers. We were reminded several times by proud Madeirans that Madeira wine was used to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Blatant Calm 