🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Portuguese

The Portuguese are the main population of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Azores and on Madeira. Their best-known tradition is the urban song fado, while the south has kept choral singing without instruments. The wine and olive oil figures below refer to the whole country, not only to one people. ¹²

Fado. It is a song of Lisbon that grew from a blend of Afro-Brazilian sung dances, rural songs brought by migrants and urban tunes of the early 19th century. A soloist sings with an acoustic guitar and the Portuguese guitarra, a pear-shaped instrument with twelve wire strings. It is sung on concert stages and in small fado houses in old quarters, and older performers teach younger ones; UNESCO listed it in 2011. ¹

A choir without instruments. In Alentejo, amateur choirs of up to thirty people sing Cante Alentejano in two parts, unaccompanied: the low ponto starts, the high alto leads, and then the whole choir comes in. Lyrics cover rural life, nature, love and faith, and rehearsals pass the singing from older to younger members, so it stays part of community life (UNESCO, 2014). In the same region, Estremoz has made clay figures of local trades and customs since the 17th century (2017). ²³

Wine. According to the OIV, in 2025 Portugal's vineyards covered 171,000 hectares and made 6 million hectolitres of wine. While most large exporters shipped less, the country raised exports to 3.4 million hectolitres, worth 1 billion euros; bottled wine accounts for 89 % of that value. Its largest market by volume is Angola, and by value France. ⁴

Olive oil, cheese and spirits. In the 2024/25 season, on preliminary IOC figures, Portugal made 177,000 tonnes of olive oil. Mountain Serra da Estrela and São Jorge cheese from the Azores are protected in the EU by origin. There are also its own spirits, such as Medronho do Algarve, listed among EU geographical indications. ⁵⁶⁷

At Christmas the Portuguese serve bolo-rei, a ring of sweet bread with candied fruit and nuts eaten until 6 January. According to Lisbon's Confeitaria Nacional, founded in 1829, the founder's son Balthazar Castanheiro Júnior brought the recipe from France.

Why it matters to you. Portuguese foods are often tied to one region or island, so look on the label for the place name and the DOP or PDO mark: it shows where and under which rules a cheese or oil was made. ⁶