Economic Geography of the Port Wine Region

Although the wine takes its name from Oporto, that city only manipulates the wine in its final stages and exports it. The wine region does not begin until about halfway between that city and the Spanish frontier and extends as far as that frontier. It is intimately bound up with the river Douro; the vines cover the margins of the river from Barqueiors to Barca de Alva and leave the river only for short distances along its tributaries. The region lies along the famous gorge of the Douro where, for the most part, the river runs at the bottom of what is nearly a canon some 1,500 feet below the general level of the peneplainized mountains which surround it. The surface is broken by terrific slopes and roads present such engineering difficulties that they never would have been constructed were it not for the great economic value of the wine produced. A normal railway now follows the river yet this, remains one of the least practicable lines of transit between Spain and Portugal

Archaeology · Art · Cartography · Economic geography · Frontier · Geography · River valley · Tributary · Wine · Wine Industry and Tourism

• Trade and terroir. The political economy of the world’s first geographical indications

  Open Access•Giulia Meloni, Johan Swinnen•Food Policy•2018

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