Smoked Meat Fair of Vinhais

One of the largest and oldest Fair of smoked products in the country.

Sale and exhibition of smoked meats (PGI), handicrafts, gourmet space, taverns, entertainment, agricultural machinery, bullfights, and equestrian expertise.

A gastronomic culture unique in Portugal and the unrivalled quality of the products make the Municipality of Vinhais the Capital of Smoked Products, leading the municipality to a dedicated and careful promotion of the “Fumeiro Fair” which, year after year, takes place on the second weekend of February.

One of the secrets of the renowned quality of the “Fumeiro de Vinhais” is the creation of the Bísaro pig, one of the only two native breeds of pigs existing in Portugal. The Bísaro pigs are characterized by their large size, reaching more than a metre in height and a metre and a half in length from the nape to the root of the tail! The proportion of muscle is greater than that of fat, with a very streaky meat.

As it is a low-fat meat, it is perhaps the secret of the smoked product's flavour. It is curious to know that the feeding of the animals in the county is made mainly based on natural products grown on the farm itself, namely potatoes, chestnuts, beetroot, pumpkin, turnip, fodder, grains, and cereal flours. It is even said that “pigs eat people's food”! But they are also benefited with the pastures, chestnut groves, and oak groves that characterise the land.

This combination of factors related to food, management, slaughter age above one year and the breed itself gives the meat excellent characteristics, especially to produce smoked sausages.

Community protections such as “Protected Geographical Indication” of products such as the “Salpicão de Vinhais”, “Linguiça de Vinhais” or “Chouriça de Carne de Vinhais”, “Alheira de Vinhais”, “Chouriça Doce de Vinhais”, “Chouriço Azedo de Vinhais”, “Butelo de Vinhais” and the “Presunto Bísaro de Vinhais” represent a particularly important instrument to avoid the mischaracterization of these products and safeguard their quality and genuineness.

These characteristics are guaranteed today in view of the higher resolution of the creation of a geographical area of production and respective certification. In 2001 the first National Bísaro Pig Fair was held, simultaneously with the Smoked Meat Fair, which began in 1981.