There is port, of course, made from grapes grown along the Douro River, and Madeira from the island of Madeira. You would be surprised at how many people think of these fortified wines as British rather than Portuguese, and with reason. The British pretty much invented port and have dominated its shipping, though France and the United States are now the biggest port markets.

For years, if people thought at all of Portuguese wines, they thought of Mateus and Lancer's, cheap sparkling rosés known for producing monumental hangovers, which were as much a rite of passage for a certain age group as buying that first Jimi Hendrix record or claiming to have been at Woodstock.

For most of the 20th century, the Portuguese themselves were making and drinking indifferent wines. Very few went out into the rest of the world, for which we can be grateful, because they weren't very good.

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