Curiosity: The wine of the dead has risen

Traditionally, the buried wines were only sold in the local supermarkets in Boticas then and could only be found on some of the wine cards in restaurants of the province city. However, two years ago, the wines that are buried under gravel every year from February to June were granted a controlled indication of origin. At the same time a museum was built, where the wines can now also be sold, then there was a showroom-vineyard and even the Portuguese President Anibal Cacaco Silva was present at its opening.

Since then, the "Vinho dos Mortos" have experienced a boom and the vintager Armindo Sousa Pereira, who is the only producer of these wines that is using the controlled indication of origin and who has been burying his whole collection of the 2500 bottles every winter, can be sure that all of his bottles will be sold.

The name "Vinho Dos Mortos" is of course pretty odd. Those wines are grown locally and buried under gravel and mud for about 4 to 5 months in cellars. This curious way of storing wine leads back to the time of the French invasion in the year 1806, where French soldiers came closer to the town Boticas on their way to Porto. Back then people in this region tried to defend themselves from burglaries and thus buried all their precious goods in their cellars, among which were wines, which used to be very scarce.

After the burglarizing soldiers continued their journey after about 4 months and thus did not pose a threat to the citizens anymore, the people buried out their belongings and also their wines. These wines tasted totally different than usually. They had more carbon dioxide, they were lighter and more fruity.

"Back then almost nobody cared about those wines", says Armindo Sousa Pereira and tells excitedly: "Today some of my customers are even there when we dig those wines out, just so they can get them right away." Naturally, the local press and for two years now also the national press has been following the diggings, which of course increases the level of awareness immensely.

"I have another vineyard which enables me to bury even more bottles next year which will hopefully satisfy the "Vinho dos Mortos"-fans" says Armindo Sousa Pereira excitedly; he has also just completed building a new cellar just for that purpose. (aw.yoopress)