Óbidos is a Portuguese wine DOC in the Lisboa wine region, located an hour's drive north of the capital city of Lisbon. Like its closest neighbor, Lourinhã, it is cool and windy, making it unsuited to the production of refined red and white wines that are made in Lisboa's more inland regions like Alenquer and Bucelas. Instead, Óbidos is famous for its sparkling wines.
The DOC covers an area inland from Lourinhã, Lisboa's key brandy-producing DOC. A break in the hills here allows cold, wet westerlies that blow in off the Atlantic throughout the year to affect Óbidos' vineyards, and high humidity in summer brings fungal threats to the vineyards.
A major effect of this moist terroir is that it increases the potential vineyard yield, giving Óbidos' vignerons the challenge of choosing between intensive crop management and lower yields, and a relatively relaxed pruning regime and higher yields. The former option ensures healthier, riper grapes and superior wine quality, while the latter promises greater volumes of lower-quality wine. As the Óbidos name is not associated with expensive or prestigious wines, the risk of investing heavily in quality is significant; few can expect their hard work at canopy management to pay off when Óbidos wine prices are restricted by reputation.
The solution to the cool, damp terroir, which both Óbidos and Lourinhã experience, is the same as adopted by the French in Champagne and Cognac: sparkling wines and brandies, respectively. As those vignerons discovered several centuries ago, the effects of unripe grapes are lessened when made into sparkling wine. Much of Óbidos' annual wine production is effervescent to some degree, typically more than the petillance (sparkle) of Vinho Verde, but also less than the tight mousse of Champagne.
