Portuguese "wine of the dead." The echo of the Napoleonic wars.

In the small Portuguese town of Botikas there is a centuries-old tradition of producing wine under a strange and slightly eerie name - "wine of the dead". Despite such an unusual name, this wine has nothing to do with death, but is definitely associated with a kind of burial ...

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In 1807 the army of Napoleon Bonaparte for the first time invaded Portugal and moved in the direction of Lisbon. This was an attempt to force the Portuguese to join the Continental blockade against British trade. Despite the threat of a French invasion, Portugal refuses to support the Napoleonic blockade, instead continuing to observe a long-term alliance with the United Kingdom.

The French took Lisbon in November, but by that time the Portuguese royal family had sailed to Brazil, hoping to preserve the courtyard and at least formal independence. Despite the authorities' flight, people's resistance to the invaders unfolded throughout the country. And when, a year later, Britain, loyal to the alliance, still introduced troops, the French had to leave. But not for long…

Napoleon did not accept this defeat and in March 1809 the second invasion began.

The French army entered Portugal from the north, hoping to capture the second largest city in the country, Porto. Again, the French faced the popular resistance. One of the strongholds of the rebels was the town of Botikas with several hundred inhabitants and large stocks of wine.

Well aware of the love of the French to loot the wine cellars, people rushed to the cellars and dug all to the last bottle in the gravel under the barrels, away from the greedy hands and gulps of the invading army. However, the forced sobriety of the invaders changed little in the outcome of the invasion. The French managed to take Porto.

But Portugal was not completely captured by Napoleon. The last invasion, which began in 1810, was perhaps the most terrible of the three. The French managed to move considerably towards Lisbon.

However, the policy of "scorched earth" applied by the British turned out to be deadly for the Napoleonic army, accustomed to providing at the expense of the plundered territories.
By March 1811, the exhausted French retreated to Salamanca in Spain, and they made no more attempts to win unruly Portuguese.

However, several years of consecutive invasions left Portugal in grave condition. In addition to the great loss of human life, enormous damage was done to agriculture, industry and commerce.

Meanwhile, in the small northern town of Botikas, locals, fearing that their hastily buried wine was spoiled, began digging out their bottles around March or April 1811. And they were pleasantly surprised to discover that the low temperature and darkness improbably improved the taste of the wine. The resulting wine was thinner in taste, with more pronounced fruit notes, and some of it acquired a sparkling character, due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide. Thanks to such a lucky chance, an unusual wine was received, called "wine of the dead".

I must say that winemakers around the world, each in their time came to similar conclusions about the benefits of burial wine. In particular, Georgia maintains the wine in buried amphorae called "Kvevri".

In Botikas, much of this tradition has been lost over time. And if it were not for the enthusiasm of local winemakers in reviving the "wine of the dead", the history of the struggle against the Napoleonic invasion could well have remained deeply "underground."

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A protected brand designating the origin area was created in 2006 for wines produced in the region of Tras-o-Montes, where Boticas is located. Soon, in 2008, a museum was opened here, in which the history of this seemingly "terrible wine" is demonstrated.

As for the name itself, the trademark "Vinho dos Mortos" (wine of the dead or wine of the dead) is currently owned by the cooperative of local farmers, and only one winemaker is allowed to use it. Armindo de Sousa Pereira, whose parents and grandparents previously produced and sold "the wine of the dead", is the lucky owner of this trademark. He is satisfied with the growing demand for his wine from foreign connoisseurs, but, as they say, he is not in a hurry to begin his export.

Preferring that foreigners would come to him, he promises surely the best reception than the one that Napoleon's soldiers first visited Botikas more than 200 years ago.