Portugal's Mateus Rosé Was My First

(Photo from Reddit, 2023)

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In the heart of Portugal, white olive florets drift like snowflakes to the green and grayish hues of the mossy granite boulders separating the terraces of my land in the Dão wine region of Oliveira do Hospital.

Less showy than the olive blossoms are the flowers of nearby grapevines, which are tiny green clusters that are still encased at this stage.

In this Mediterranean climate, olive trees and grapevines are companions throughout the year. Olive oil and wine are food staples.

While still in the United States, it was Portugal which introduced me to wine.

My parents did not drink wine or any alcohol, not for any religious or philosophical reason. So, I was not exposed to wine while growing up. Fifty years ago at Williams College in the woods of Massachusetts, a fellow student in Mission Park dormitory unveiled an unusual-shaped bottle and poured me a glass of its slightly effervescent contents.

What was it?

Mateus Rosé!

Sogrape Vinhos, now Portugal's largest wine company, began producing Mateus in 1942. The iconic bottle shape was inspired by the canteens of the soldiers of the First World War. The label disclosed its Old World origin. It depicted Casa de Mateus, an 18th-century Baroque stately home of granite, in the parish of Mateus, near Vila Real, in Tras-os-Montes. The grapes, originally, came from the vineyards of the house located in the remote north of the country, according to Fundação da Casa de Mateus.

Mateus tasted and looked elegant. To someone without a wine palate, it was smooth. A sophisticated wine, it seemed to me. I was impressed by the gift and its bearer.

And when the wine had been drained, the bottle made a stunning candle-holder, with dried colored wax clinging to its sides.

In 1943, the newly created Mateus Rosé was exported to Rio de Janeiro. It did not take long for the label to spread throughout the rest of the world.

The marketing strategy was clever. Two bottles of Mateus were given to nations' ambassadors and consuls: the first for them to try, and the second for them to offer to someone else, according to Fundação da Casa de Mateus. When these important figures were seen tasting the wine, it was easy to identify that it was Mateus Rosé, as its shape was exclusive.

I do not recall any newspaper advertisements or television commercials for Mateus. It was all word-of-mouth.

In the 1970s, Mateus Rosé was the most popular wine in the world. Queen Elizabeth II preferred it; guitarist Jimi Hendrix chugged it in a famous photograph, and soldiers in the U.S. Army drank it more than any other wine, becoming evangelists of Mateus in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

About 10 different red grape varieties go into Mateus, said António Oliveira Bessa, then-CEO of Sogrape, according to The Gray Report (June 4, 2014). Most come from the Dão region in the Beiras, where I now live and have made red wine. Rosé grapes are harvested earlier than red-wine grapes. To avoid the risk of heat spikes and over-ripeness, the company buys almost all the grapes for Mateus rather than use grapes from its vineyards.

"And all those grapes are specifically grown and harvested for rosé, which is a major reason why Mateus tastes better than a lot of more expensive rosés," wrote The Gray Report. "Many wineries make rosé by bleeding off some of the juice to concentrate their reds, so their rosé is just a byproduct. In other cases, wineries take the red wine grapes that aren't up to snuff and dump them in their rosé, and it shows."

Over the years, Sogrape has become diversified by acquiring such brands as Sandeman, founded in 1790, which produces port, sherry wines, brandy and Madeira wine; the luxury red Barca Velha, which is the flagship wine of Casa Ferreirinha, and the Spanish Rioja LAN.

Sogrape still produces Mateus Rosé, though the wine is now drier to suit present-day tastes. However, in 1983, it sued its U.S. distributor to regain distribution rights and lost the lawsuit, according to The Gray Report. A resentful distributor took control.

So, it is not as easy to find Mateus in the States as it is here in Portugal and in other countries.

How much more difficult will Mateus be to find if slapped with an additional tariff of 200 percent, 20 percent or 50 percent, all recent proposals of U.S. President Donald Trump?

After a telephone call between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on May 25, the U.S. president delayed the imposition of a 50 percent tariff on all European goods from June 1 to July 9, reported Politico (May 27).