• vineyards in the Douro (pictured) are graded on several factors, such as microclimate and which grape varieties are planted, that can influence the potential quality of Port wine?
• with their extensive vineyard holdings in the Douro and many Port wine brands, the Symington Family Estates are considered a "Port empire"?
• the Funicular dos Guindais was originally built to carry cargo - including port wine - from the Ribeira quayside to the centre of Porto, and is now a tourist attraction and one of the world's steepest counter-balanced cable railways?
• in response to rioting in Oporto over price increases for Port wine, the Marquis of Pombal had several members of the Factory House executed?
• despite establishing the mandate that Port wine should only come from the Douro, the Marquis of Pombal allowed grapes grown from his own estate in Carcavelos to be used by Port producers?
• following the Liberal Wars, the owner of Fonseca Guimaraens had to flee Portugal in an empty Port wine barrel because of his support of liberal reforms?
• after a wine fraud scandal involving adulterating Port wine with elderberry juice, Portuguese wine authorities ordered all elderberry plants in the Douro to be ripped out?

Facts on topics related to Port wine

Portuguese wine

• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington helped popularize the Portuguese wine Bucelas in London after he discovered it while fighting in the Peninsular War?

List of grape varieties

• Nielluccio, Sciacarello and Vermentino are the three leading grape varieties for making Corsica wine?
• despite being made from the same grape variety and less than 10 miles apart, the Barbaresco and the Barolo are two distinctly different Italian wines?
• one way that winemakers determine physiological ripeness of some grape varieties is by watching the change in the stems from flexible and green (pictured) to hard and brown?

Portugal

• 18th century Franco-Portuguese industrialist Jácome Ratton (pictured) left a vivid account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in his memoirs and was exiled to the Azores during the Napoleonic Wars?
• Angola gained its independence from Portugal through the Alvor Agreement?
• Eça de Queirós, one of the greatest writers in the Portuguese language, was born in Praça do Almada, the civic center of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal?
• Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516?
• Portugal was taken to court over its failure to implement EU directives regarding its water supply and sanitation systems?
• Portuguese Josefa de Óbidos was one of the few women dedicated to painting (pictured: still life by her) in the Baroque era?
• Portuguese architect Mateus Fernandes is best known for his Manueline-style work at the Monastery of Batalha?
• Portuguese soldier and explorer Francisco Barreto led an expedition to Monomotapa in search of legendary gold mines, but died along the way from tropical diseases, as did many of his men?
• Ulysses S. Grant awarded Bolama to Portugal, who made it the first capital of Portuguese Guinea?
• Arthur Raikes was a British army officer but received honours from Zanzibar, Austria and Portugal?

List of wine-producing regions

• the wine-producing region of Blackwood Valley is named after the longest continually flowing river in Western Australia?