O Douro Superior, da produção cerealífera à vinhateira: a afirmação do Vinho do Porto

Abstract

This article focuses on the affirmation and sustainability of vines and wine, articulated with cereal farming in the Douro Superior, and analises three phases of its vineyard evolution: the first, embryonic and of reduced commercial expression, prior to the phylloxera outbreak; the second, of progressive affirmation, from the last quarter of the 19th century to the demarcations of 1907-1908, with the institutional recognition of the enlargement of the Douro Demarcated Region to the border with Spain; the third, in the course of 20th century, corresponding to the development and wine consolidation of this sub-region, which today produces Port wine and high quality DOC wines. It is part of a vast field of research on the process of transformations of the Douro Regional Space2, the expansion of the vineyard with intra-regional differences and the economic and institutional changes in the Port wine sector, during the temporal arc considered