Railway

Without the railway the Douro Demarcated Region as we know it today would probably not exist. The Douro line, built between 1875 and 1887, is one of the main structural routes in the north of Portugal, connecting Porto to the Douro wine region. The train was one of the main, if not the main, driving forces behind the expansion of the Port producing region to the border and the reconstruction of the regional vineyard on the ‘mortórios’ (vine graveyards in the wake of phylloxera ), enabling the transport of American rootstocks, fertilisers, sulphides, and other plant-health products (BARROS et. al., 2008: 57).