(USAToday) - The world's greatest wine region? If you're thinking Bordeaux, Burgundy or Napa Valley, it may be time to think again.

Wines from Portugal's Douro Valley claimed three of the top four places in Wine Spectator's 2014 top 100 ranking — including the No. 1 spot awarded to Dow's 2011 Vintage Port.

"It's been famous for producing extraordinary ports for over 300 years and it's got a unique beauty all its own," says Paul Symington, whose family produces the top wine. "There are many superlatives that you can apply to the Douro. Many of us argue it's the most beautiful wine-growing area in the world."

Although the Douro is still best known for its ports — wines fortified with brandy traditionally served before or after a meal — the region's table wines are also generating excitement in the world of wine.

Third on Wine Spectator's list is the Chryseia red wine, also produced by the Symington family in collaboration with French winemaker Bruno Prats.

In fourth place came another red from higher up the Douro River: the Quinta do Vale Meao 2011, described by Wine Spectator as "a lush, seductive red, filled to the brim with an array of dark fruit."

"For the last few years, a whole bunch of people have been making some really serious red and white wines here," Symington said in an interview. "To get the Wine Spectator, which is comfortably and by a country mile the most powerful wine magazine in the world, to turn a spotlight on the Douro for its red wines as well as its great port, is a remarkable achievement."

All three of the top wines were from 2011. That was an exceptional year for the vineyards that rise on terraced hillsides from the banks of the Douro as it snakes 130 miles through northern Portugal from the Spanish border toward the old city of Oporto on the Atlantic Ocean.