Sheltered by mountains from both the Atlantic and the summer heat, the granite plateau of the Dão makes Portugal's most elegant reds — fragrant, fresh and finely built, often called the country's answer to Burgundy in poise. Touriga Nacional leads, scenting the wine with violet and mountain herb over firm, ageworthy tannin.
For decades a rigid cooperative system flattened the region's wines; their revival came when estates won back the right to bottle their own. Cool, high and slow to ripen, the Dão is increasingly recognised as the source of Portugal's most refined and long-lived table reds.