16th century, 1st half - fortified wines, long produced in the Douro region, favored by specific climatic factors combined with the geological and morphological characteristics of the soil, were known at the time with the designation of Lamego wines and considered the best and most aromatic in the kingdom; their production area was relatively small, being mostly transported by land to the kingdom and to Castile;

 

1675 - the designation "Port Wine" appears, for the first time, in documents relating to the export of wine to the Netherlands;

 

1703 - Treaty of Methuen , between Portugal and England, grants preferential rights to Portuguese wines;

 

18th century, mid - restructuring of the vineyards, occupying, more and more, the area of ​​the Cima Corgo, where the wine obtained was more to British taste; transformation of the landscape, which is submitted to the vineyard, which starts to dominate the region; the euphoric climate degenerates into adulteration and commercial chaos, and there is also a crisis of overproduction; the solution for the balance of the region is found by the biscaínho Bartolomeu Pancorbo and by the Douro people Luís Beleza de Andrade and friar João de Mansilha, who propose to Sebastião de Carvalho e Melo, future Marquis of Pombal, the institution of the General Company of Agriculture of Vinhas do Alto Douro;

 

1756, 10 September - royal charter that approved the creation of the Company, with the objective of guaranteeing the quality of the product, fixing prices and establishing the demarcation of the wine region; the creation of the first national monopoly company in the Alto Douro wines led to the demarcation of their production region, the first demarcation of wine production in the world, through a register or registration of authorized vineyards on the banks of the Douro, called vines or wines wine making and shipping, further classifying them according to categories, with the wine category wines from the 1st category destined for export and the branch and table wines, from the 2nd category, for internal consumption;

 

1757 - placement of 201 factoring marks , to perpetuate this first demarcation;

 

1760 - two Englishmen visiting Portugal and the Lamego region bought the whole production of generous wine from a farm near Pinhão and publicized the drink in England with great success, initiating the first colonies of English producers, such as Diogo and José James Forrester; he prepared a survey of the region and drew the first plan of the total course of the Douro River;

 

1761 - new demarcation of the region, placing another 134 marks;

 

1792 - The opening of the Cachão da Valeira intensifies relations to the Upper Douro, although the expansion of the vineyards only took place in the 19th century. 19;

 

1834, 30 May - D. Pedro transforms the Company into a mere commercial company; the absence of superintendent bodies has led to the proliferation of adulterated Port wines which, combined with the disturbance of the English market and the opening of the Douro bar to all wines, plunges the sector into a deep crisis;

 

1838 - rehabilitation of the Company and creation of Douro ports exclusively for Douro wine;

 

1850 - proliferation of maromba, mal negro or gamosa;

 

1852 - great damage to the vine culture in the Baixo and Cima Corgo area caused by powdery mildew;

 

1863, from - devastation of the vineyards by phylloxera;

 

1893 - outbreak of downy mildew in the vineyard;

 

1907 - new demarcation of the Port wine production region, which now includes the Douro Superior up to the border with Spain.

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The Alto Douro Wine Region is the most representative and best preserved landscape in the Douro Demarcated Region, the oldest and most regulated wine-growing region in the world. The originality of the establishment of that demarcated area lay in the fact that it included the elaboration of a register and a classification of the parcels and respective wines, and the creation of institutional mechanisms for control and certification of the product, supported on a legal basis.

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Among the mountain viticulture regions, the Alto Douro is the one with the largest scale, the greatest historical significance, the greatest continuity and the greatest biological variety of the grape varieties perfected there.

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Within the historic viticultural regions of European mountain and hillside, the Alto Douro is the most significant spot of this type of implantation. The Alto Douro is an exceptional example of a humanized landscape, testimony to the boldness and ingenuity of man, who in a superhuman effort, only justified by obtaining a product of high quality and high economic return like Port Wine, created and developed techniques for valuing the adverse environment, over the centuries, which allowed the cultivation of the vineyard. It is therefore an evolutionary landscape, combining different ways of organizing and setting up the vineyard and from different eras.

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The construction of terraces for its culture, the most monumental element of the landscape, of variable geometry, depending on the slope of the slope, to the techniques and terracing season, with new forms of vineyard structure, sculpted a landscape of complex architecture, of mosaics capriciously arranged and scenic, accentuated by the high vertical walls or perpendicular to the terraces that delimit the farms, bordered by olive and almond trees.

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With this overwhelming and intoxicating viticultural landscape, it contrasts the modesty and simplicity of the heritage built in the villages, of concentrated occupation, as well as the sober architecture of the sunny houses and farms, whose organization of the built nucleus was dependent on the functional aspects of the vine culture.

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Living evolutionary cultural landscape resulting from the interaction of man and nature, centered on viticulture, of high quality, developed for centuries in difficult environmental conditions, resulting in a wine known worldwide as "Porto" and "Douro". It constitutes a landscape built over the centuries according to environmentally optimized solutions from the point of view of taking advantage of the scarce resources of water and soil, and the high slope of the land, with Mediterranean cultures adapted to these conditions forming mosaics: the vine, planted predominantly in terraces built on extensive shale walls, which helped to prevent erosion, creating amphitheaters along the slopes; olive and almond trees, mainly planted as separating elements; the vegetable gardens and orchards in the most fertile lands, next to the water lines; and the bush in the higher zones.

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The landscape is punctuated in white by the villages, of concentrated occupation, terraced houses along the way, adapted to the unevenness of the terrain, and very sober. On the farms, the owner's houses, built in the most prominent place in the landscape, are of great sobriety, elementary design, with façade decoration achieved essentially by the contrast of the different materials and the rhythm of the openings. They have an adjoining or isolated chapel, of a semi-public character, a small front garden, usually of boxwoods, and the various buildings linked to the culture of the vineyard, interconnected in a functional way and taking advantage of the slope of the land.

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