The rising sun's amber rays light up the ragged ridges above the Douro River, where flourishing grape vines are arranged in neat rows and curl like ribs around the steep slopes.
Grape pickers slowly zigzag uphill, rummaging among the green and yellow vine leaves, snipping off heavy bunches of dark red grapes and placing them carefully in buckets.
PHOTO: AP
Stocky, suntanned men, in a steady stream, heave 22kg containers onto their shoulders and strain along dusty paths to the trucks that carry the grapes to wineries in the valley below.
"We've always done it this way," Valentina de Oliveira, 69, says when asked about the labor-intensive harvest. She has been a grape picker since she was 10.
Tradition still prevails in this rural region of northern Portugal, best known for its sweet and syrupy port wine. Port sales last year totaled 81.8 billion escudos (US$366 million), the highest since 1988.
But behind the very thick and whitewashed walls of the centuries-old wine estates known as "quintas," the port producers are preparing to begin competing in the world market for top-quality red table wines.
"In the past six years or so ... there has been a revolution" in the Douro region, says Jerry Luper, an American winemaker who worked for 24 years in California's Napa Valley.
Luper, who moved here full time in 1999 to develop new table wines for the 245-year-old port maker Real Companhia Velha, says the changes remind him of the Napa Valley three decades ago when it was emerging as a major new wine area.
Producers cite several attractions in diversifying: Table wine offers a quicker cash return than port, which takes at least five years and up to 20 or more years to mature. Consumers are spending more money on table wine. Port producers have excess grapes.
The Douro, officially demarcated as a wine region since the 1750s, is associated with wine in Portugal the same way as Bordeaux is in France. Pinhao, a small town at the heart of the region, lies about 300km north of Lisbon.
The region produces more than 40 varieties of wine grapes. Popular local varieties include Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cao and Periquita. Chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon also grow here.
The land is too uneven to mechanize the grape harvest, so traditional harvesting methods are blended with the latest production expertise.
At the Quinta do Sol winery owned by the Symington family group, founded in 1882, wine production has in recent years been automated, computerized and robotized with mechanical grape treaders.
A few kilometers away, Oliveira and her crew stumble on crumbling slate and powdery earth, crunching dry leaves under foot, at the Symington's Quinta do Bonfim vineyard.
The harvest lasts for several weeks in the fall.
"I can tell it's a good year," Oliveira says as she tops up another bucket.
Peter Symington is acutely aware of the competition his company faces, especially from wine makers in California, Australia and Chile.
Marketing and branding are half the battle, he says, adding that he wants "port's quality image to rub off on the table wine."
Sophia Bergqvist, who gave up her job as a former international management consultant to produce wine at her family's Quinta de La Rosa, says the switch from port to table wine has not been easy.
Many factors go into blending and creating a full-bodied wine. Take the barrels as an example: Should they be of Portuguese, French or American oak? How was the oak toasted? How was it dried? How many years ago was it dried? These can be crucial differences in a wine's flavor.
"Ten years' experience is like 10 months' experience in this business," she says.
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