Blauer Portugieser

Blauer Portugieser has nothing to do with Portugal. The name attached itself in the eighteenth century through a story about cuttings brought to Austria from Porto, and the story has not survived scrutiny. DNA work places its origin in Lower Styria, now Slovenian Styria, where it is a natural crossing of blaue zimmettraube and silvaner.

It exists because it is easy. It ripens very early, crops heavily, and survives cold winters, which made it the practical red grape of Germany and Austria before warming and better clones let other varieties ripen there. It was once the second most planted red in Germany. Plantings have fallen steadily since the 1990s as growers switched to spatburgunder and dornfelder.

The wine is pale, soft, low in tannin and low in acid, with light red berry fruit and very little grip. It is made to be drunk within a year, often chilled, and in Germany it is a common base for a light red or a rose. Held to a low yield on good sites in the Pfalz and Rheinhessen it can be pleasant, but it is not built for ageing.