9 March, 1908.] Viticulture in Europe. 179 



Portuguefse authorities divide their country, from a viticultural 

 point of view, into thirteen districts, each of which presents marked 

 differences as regards the type of wine produced, the varieties cultivated 

 and cultural or winemaking methods. 



Such a very thorough grouping would only lead to confusion and for 

 present purposes we may roughly divide Portugal into four principal viti- 

 cultural regions — 



1. The JNIinho or Northern District. 



2. The Douro or Port District. 



3. The Lisbon District. 



4. The Algarve or Southern District. 



These different districts can be more conveniently dealt with separately. 



The Minho or Northern District. 



This embraces the whole of the north of Portugal until the Douro 

 region is reached. Though most interesting and very different from the 

 rest of Portugal, I did not think the conditions here were sufficiently 

 similar to Australian ones to justify my spending any of my limited time 

 in it. Besides there is nothing to be learnt here so far as reconstitution 

 is concerned. The chief peculiarities of the district may be briefly reviewed 

 as follows : — 



The soil is chiefly decomposed granite ; it is very deep. 



The type of wine produced is quite different to anything we know in 

 Australia. It is a very light, dn,-, red wine, rich in fixed acids and 

 tannin, which would probably be unsaleable in Australia, either for home 

 consumption or exportation. This wine, known as Vinho Verde or Green 

 Wine, is much appreciated in Portugal and is also exported to Brazil 

 and other parts of South America. The varieties from which it is made 

 are special to the district ; amongst them may be mentioned the Rabigato 

 and Gouveio. 



The method of training the vines is quite different to anything one sees 

 in Australia. They are either trained on trees or on high overhead trel- 

 lises known as " Remadas." Property is very much subdivided on the 

 Minho and vineyards are not such as we a:re accustomed to. They usuallv 

 consist of odd vines of very large size growing amongst mixed crops of 

 different kinds — a regular vineyard is the exception. These vines trained 

 on trees and "Remadas " are very picturesque and bear heavy crops but, 

 of course, are only suited for the production of wines of low alcoholic 

 strength such as these green wines. 



A striking fact about viticulture in this region is that, so far. phyl- 

 loxera has done little or no damage. 



This is attributed to two causes: — Firstly, the nature of the soil. It 

 is generally observed that vines take longer to die in deep loose soils thr.n 

 in those of a more compact nature. In these deep granitic soils the action 

 of phylloxera is very slow. 



Secondly, to the method of training the vine. It is well known 

 throughout Europe that very laxge vines, such as the trellises round a 

 house or a cellar, possess, in a marked degree, the power of resisting 

 phylloxera. One sees examples of this everywhere. Frequently they 

 continue to thrive after the small vines in their neifhbourhood ha\-e been 

 destroved for manv rears. 



