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In an effort to shed some light on how I study for WSET Diploma Course’s D3 exam, Le Club des Vins is running a series of posts covering wine regions. Today’s topic: Dão
📍 Location
Dão is a wine region in Portugal, located south east of Porto and southwest of the Douro Valley.
In a nutshell
- Portugal
- Pretty high rainfall
- Mediterranean climate
- ‘Portugese chardonnay’
- For reds: touriga nacional, tinta roriz, jaen and alfrocheiro
☁️ Climate
The climate is Mediterranean, the region is surrounded by highlands protecting it from cool winds from the Ocean, but also from warmer winds coming from the inlands. Surprisingly, the rainfall in Dão is quite high, but mainly falls in the winter 👉 Water stress can be an issue during ripening.⠀
🌋 Soils
Another cause for water stress is the soil. Common soil is weathered granite with a sandy texture. Not big in water retention.
🍇 Grapes & styles
The main varieties for red wine are touriga nacional, tinta roriz, jaen and alfrocheiro. For whites, it’s encruzado – which I always call the Portugese chardonnay as it is just as versatile as our char and the good ones can age pretty well.
💡 Something you didn’t know (did you?)
90.3% of vineyards owners have an area of less than 0.5 hectares and only 0.02% have an area greater than 10 hectares. Th largest wine company of Portugal is Sogrape and is located in Dão, see @wineanorak for a profile of the company.
Your turn now
I always put a new region on instagram first. If you have any additions or comments on a region, please do share. You can drop a comment on instagram or on the website – see below. Your help is much appreciated!