Although by its geographical position and geological conformation Portugal is peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of the grape, its natural advantages have been obstructed, if not almost neutralized, by the ignorance, indolence, and cupidity of the viticulturists, who for more than two centuries have generally contented themselves with manufacturing a factitious wine, which is exported almost exclusively to England, and has long been regarded by Englishmen as a genuine product of the vine. The Portuguese wine of commerce, known as port from the town of Oporto, near the mouth of the river Douro, is produced from grapes grown in the valley of that river and in those of certain of its tributaries, including the Corgo and the Penhao. The wines of the Alto Douro or Corgo district are those of the highest repute; but lower down in the valley is produced a species of dry, red, natural wine, called consumo, which from its cheapness, purity, and dietetic qualities is destined probably to prove a formidable rival to the more costly products of the upper Douro. Other wines of Portugal, mostly of local reputation, are the growth of Alemquer, Torres Vedras, Lamego, and Moncao, which last has a high celebrity, and those of Lisbon, Bucellas, Termo, Calcavellos (dry white wines), and Colares (a red wine, long exported to England, and still, though less abundantly, as Colares port). The wine of Barra-a-Barra, in the vicinity of Lavadrio, has been praised as one of the richest produced by Portugal. The common wines of the country are mostly inferior to those of Spain. England, as has been observed, is the chief consumer of port wine, and tione reaches that country containing less than three gallons of brandy to the pipe of 115 gallons, while the so-called rich wines contain from five to six times that amount of alcoholic admixture.

The natural wine, produced in a good year, resembles the Cote Rotie or others of the Rhone growths. It contains from 9 to 14 per cent, of alcohol, and would not be recognized by those accustomed only to the wine of commerce, which has an alcoholic strength equal to 40 per cent, of proof spirit. "The principal reason for the addition of brandy to port wine is this, that it is the quickest and most certain means to make the wine marketable and salable to the consumer. The wine is not made drinkable any earlier than it would have been without the addition of brandy; on the contrary, it would have matured quicker in its natural state. But the brandy brings it into a quiescent condition; it is not liable to any subsequent little fermentations; it maybe exported to climates hot and cold; in other words, with 40 per cent, of proof spirit in it, port wine will keep." (Thudicum and Dupre, "Treatise on "Wine.") Port wine, therefore, unbrandied, could not be shipped to a foreign market in less than six or seven years from the time of its expressing. Fortified with brandy, it can be shipped within three or four months after the vintage, and is actually consumed in large quantities in England when less than a year old.

Port wine is most effectually mellowed in large casks. -The intelligent buyer will of course keep it in the bottle for seven or eight years, until the alcoholic taste is dispelled, and the true flavor of the wine recovered; but most persons who use port, having neither the means nor the patience to do this, habitually drink a wine containing 10 per cent, more of alcoholic strength than is healthful, and every glass of which equals in strength more than two fifths of a glass of brandy. Statistics show that within a period of ten years England has been in the habit of exporting annually to Portugal spirits equal in amount to one half the wine she received from that country, the presumption being that the British consumer has really been dearly buying back British spirits under the name and guise of port wine. The predilection of the English people for the fortified wines of Portugal, and the production of such wines, are traceable to the wars between France and England, which occupied so many years of the reign of Louis XIV. Previous to the close of the 17th century the red wines of France were extensively used in England, while those of Portugal were scarcely known there.

But a bitter hostility to France induced the British government to negotiate with Portugal in 1703 what is known as the Methuen treaty, by the terms of which it agreed to receive Portuguese wines in exchange for British woollen manufactures, at one third less duties than those of France, thus practically excluding the latter from the country. For a few years pure wines were imported, but about 1715-17 they began to be brandied, while the duties were reduced to about one eighth of those paid on French wines. The taste for port wine was thus forced upon the people by their rulers. " There is no necessity," says Redding, " to search for any other reason why port wine was so generally drunk in England. It was no intrinsic worth in the wines themselves which introduced them. Englishmen became wedded to long usage, and numbers believed port wine the only real red wine in the world." ("History and Description of Modern "Wines.") In 1756 a monopoly of the wine country of the upper Douro was given to a company, and from that date began the adulteration and deterioration of those wines, although sophistications of them had been complained of 25 years earlier.

This monopoly extended to 1833, and during its existence the quality of the wine steadily deteriorated, while the admixture of alcohol reached its maximum. The company made no scruple of purchasing inferior wines to dispose of as port or to mingle with the genuine product of the Douro vines, and defended its practice of brandying them by asserting that the English could not have their wines too strong, although before the monopoly was established very little brandy had ever been used in England. As an illustration of the degree to which the wine has been doctored within a recent period, to meet the vitiated English taste, the following formula for making port wine of the first quality is quoted from Dr. Druitt's " Report on Cheap Wines" (2d ed., rewritten and enlarged, London, 1873): "To the pipe of half fermented must is added, to check fermentation:

Taking the probable strength when half fermented at 14° (the highest natural strength known being 28°), the strength would thus be about 42° or a little above it." Port wine of this description is still largely imported into England, but those who drink it are of a different class from its former consumers, who have gradually substituted the light, genuine wines of France or Germany. What is known as jeropiga tinta, that is, must checked at the height of its fermentation by the admixture of 32 per cent, of proof spirits, and colored with elderberries, is largely imported into the United States under the name of " pure juice." - The island of Madeira, discovered by the Portuguese in 1419, was planted as early as 1421 with vines alleged to have been brought from Candia and Cyprus. Within a century and a half their products had reached a high degree of excellence, and they maintained their reputation until near the middle of the present century, when spurious wines, sold under the name of Madeira, began to affect the production of the genuine wines, which was subsequently almost paralyzed by the oidium or grape blight, which visited the island with peculiar severity.

The wines in most repute are the malmsey and dry madeira, produced respectively from the Malvasia and Vidogna grape, and the sercial and Unto. The best vineyards are on the S. side of the island, those on the N. side being mainly used for distilling brandy. When new, the wines of Madeira are' of great body, and so harsh and rough as to be unfit for use until toned down and matured by age, or subjected to a sea voyage, the heat and motion of which accelerate the oxidation of the extractive and astringent principles of the wine, and promote an earlier formation of the ethers to which it owes its flavor. A voyage to the East Indies was once supposed to be indispensable to ripen Madeira wines, but it is now known that motion and heat will accomplish the same purpose in any climate. A pipe of wine attached to the beam of a steam engine in an engine house, where the temperature is uniformly high and the motion continual, has been matured within a year so as not to be distinguishable from the choicest East India. The wine not subjected to these accelerating processes requires about six years to ripen, and previous to exportation receives from three to four gallons of brandy to the pipe of 92 gallons. The brandy is also the product of the island.

The best Madeira wines are the malm-seys, which are more or less amber-colored, dry, and of a peculiar nutty flavor. They were largely consumed in America and the West Indies as early as the beginning of the 18th century, and in the United States have always been in great repute. Notwithstanding the supply has for many years failed, a considerable stock is still held here. The vintage of 1874 in Madeira is said to have been excellent in quality, and so abundant that the resources of the island were severely taxed to supply the means of putting the wine in casks. (See Madeira).