while table wine has always been produced in the region, for a long time little of it was seen outside the region itself. the port lodges were focused on the production and export of port wine, which was their unique product on the export market, and had little interest in other wine styles. thus, while the wines could be good, for a long time, there was no attempt to use douro grapes to produce more ambitious table wine. the person credited with creating the first ambitious douro wine is fernando nicolau de almeida, who worked as an oenologist with the port house ferreira. he visited bordeaux during world war ii, which gave him inspiration for creating a top-quality table wine. the wine barca velha, first produced in 1952 using grapes from quinta do vale de meão situated in the douro superior subregion, was the result. barca velha didn't immediately get many followers, since most port wine houses remained uninterested in non-fortified wines for a long time. a few more ambitious douro wines made their appearance from the 1970s, but it was not until the 1990s when a large number of wines made their appearance. a contributing factor was portugal's entry into the european economic community in 1986, which meant that the port lodges' monopoly was abolished, thus paving the way for producers in the douro valley to produce and bottle their own wine - port or dry douro wines. at this stage, several port houses also introduced douro wines into their range.