(TDB) - Winemakers in the Douro Valley are only just scratching the surface in terms of the potential in the region to make world class dry wines according to Jorge Borges of Wine & Soul.

Speaking to the drinks business during a recent visit to the Douro Valley, Borges said: “The new generation of dry winemakers in the Douro are well travelled and opened minded to new ways of thinking and looking at the past.

“The Douro has huge potential for table wine and there is so much still to discover from the region – we’re only just scratching the surface of the Douro’s potential and the best is yet to come.”

Borges and his wife Sandra Tavares run Wine & Soul, a boutique Douro project focusing on dry wines. Unusually for the region, they export 70% of what they make and are brought into the UK by Corney & Barrow.

Having dreamt of making a top dry red from the Douro, their project began in 2001 with purchased fruit from selected sites in the Pinhão Valley and 2003 they bought a steep-sloped vineyard in the Vale de Mendiz planted with 80-year-old vines across thirty varieties.