Drinking through Portugal wine regions with a Fonte do Ouro Tinto Dão. Part 11.

Drinking through Portugal wine regions 

with a Fonte do Ouro Tinto Dão. 

Part IV (Vinho Verde, Lisboa and Alentejano).

Part III (Alentejo) 

Part 11 (Douro, Dão, Alentejo and Setubal.)  

Part 1 (Minho) 

Foot Trodden (2021), a recent book on Portuguese wine, covers these eight regions: Minho, Douro, Dão, Bairrada, Colares, Ribatejo, Alentejo and Madeira (home of one of the most age-worthy wines). Other regions noted are Algarve, Setubal, Beiras Interior, Tránsmontano, Bucelas, VR Lisbon and Carcavelos. This is the start of an occasional focus on Portugal over the next month or two and I’ll try to get my hands on as many of the wines as I can. Any tips or help will be most welcome!

Fonte do Ouro Tinto Dão (DOC) 2020, 13.5% ABV, €17.25, O'Briens Wine 

Like many Portuguese wines, this is a blend. All three grapes used are popular in the region. The Alfrocheiro adds depth of colour, Touriga Nacional (with its expressive violet scent) is considered to be the country’s finest, while Jaen is the local name for the what the Spanish call Mencía. By the way, Touriga Nacional probably started “life” in the Dão, mostly a granite plateau with the eponymous river running through it.

Importers and distributors O’Brien’s: A delicious red, showcasing the quality of winemaking in the Dão region of Portugal. Aged for 6 months in French oak it is a blend of indigenous grapes: primarily Touriga Nacional. 

Dão is one of the oldest established wine regions of Portugal, located just south of the famous Douro Valley. The mountainous region is home to Touriga Nacional, the principle variety of port wine, and only became a DOC in 1990.

The region’s wine industry, for so long shackled by the dictator Salazar’s imposed cooperative system that rewarded quantity over quality, certainly needed the improvement in quality which has taken place in the last 30 years or so.

Ironically, Salazar himself had vines in the wild and rugged regiona and a string of coops were set up but the emphasis was always on quantity not quality. Even though Salazar departed in 1968 and the Carnation Revolution of six years later finally ended the influence of his policies and those of his like-minded successors, the Däo was in the doldrums until well into the 1990s when EU policy and its monetary help provided the kiss of life and the area began to put its reputation for producing what Jancis Robinson termed “some of the…. most uncharming wines in the world” behind it.

The top Dão wines are now some of the most highly rated in Europe, winning consistent praise on both sides of the Atlantic, says wine-searcher.com. “It is in the north of the country. It takes its name from the Dão river, along which the majority of the region's vineyards are located.” More praise from the World Atlas of Wine saying they are now “..far juicier, friendlier, more elegant wines”.

A government study in 2017 listed no fewer than 230 indigenous varieties in Portugal and, according to the marvellous Foot Trodden, there are many many more yet to be identified. No wonder there are so many blends in the country.

Our blend has a dark ruby colour. Fairly rich aromas of blackberry, dark cherry and plum. There’s a great mix of the fruit flavours on the palate, with a touch of spice, smooth with elegant tannins and a very satisfying and persistent finish. This supple and fresh wine, full of vitality, has spent six months in oak and should be served at 16 to 18 degrees and will go well with red meats. 

Full of Dão character and Very Highly Recommended as is the book Foot Trodden!.

Sociedade Agrícola Boas Quintas, born in 1991, was part of the revival. It all began when Nuno Cancela de Abreu, representative of the 4th generation of a family with farming and winemaking tradition of more than 130 years, decided to devote all of his experience and all of his knowledge in viticulture and oenology, to the service of the project that would allow him to create high quality wines, full of character and personality. See more here.

Boas Quintas also make an excellent Fonte do Ouro white, a blend of Arinto and Encruzado, more details here.  

Drinking through Portugal wine regions I. An engaging Alvarinho from Minho.

Drinking through Portugal wine regions I. 

An engaging Alvarinho from Minho

Foot Trodden (2021), a book on Portuguese wine that I am currently reading, covers these eight regions: Minho, Douro, Dao, Bairrada, Colares, Ribatejo, Alentejo and Madeira (home of one of the most age-worthy wines). Other regions noted are Algarve, Setubal, Beiras Interior, Tránsmontano, Bucelas, VR Lisbon and Carcavelos. This is the start of an occasional focus on Portugal over the next month or two and I’ll try to get my hands on as many of the wines as I can. Any tips or help will be most welcome!

Quinta de Gomariz Alvarinho, Vinho Regional Minho, 2020, 13.5% ABV, €18.00 Bubble Brothers

I’m starting in Minho (where Vinho Verde comes from ) and I bought this Alvarinho at the Bubbles Brothers stall in the English Market. It has a bright and clean straw colour, no tints of green in this twilight hour. The nose is quite complex with scents of fresh citrus fruits as well as floral hints and a hint of honey. Quite a lively duet of flavour and freshness in the mouth on the way to a lip-smacking finalé. 

Very engaging, Very Highly Recommended.

At a tasting some years ago in Cork, I heard a wine importer posit that it was difficult to find a bad Albarino. 

António Sousa, winemaker at Gomariz would agree. In conversation with Jamie Goode, interview here, Sousa said: 'It's almost impossible to have a bad wine from this..’. He was speaking of Alvarinho, the same grape as Albarino. Gomariz operate in the extreme north of Portugal, close to the Minho River, the border with Spain, (you’ll know the area better as Vinho Verde). 

I thought, for a long time, that Vinho Verde meant green (or young) wine and the most recent World Atlas of Wine seems to agree but I’ve also seen that it refers instead to the wet and green landscape. 

Foot Trodden (2022) refers to Minho (the country’s second biggest wine region after the Douro) as “Portugal’s sister region to Galicia”. Here in the Spanish homeland of the ancient Celts, Rias Baixas, also wet and green, is home to the crisp light and refreshing Albarino.

Amazing how Albarino has taken off in Ireland over the past decade or more but you don’t see that much Alvarinho here. Many wines from Portugal are blends, sometimes with many grapes, and the less experienced customers find it difficult enough. But this one is 100% Alvarinho, surely not more difficult to pronounce than the successful Spanish equivalent. Perhaps the busy label here is off-putting for the casual wine-shopper.

We owe the Irish introduction of Gomariz wine to Bubble Brothers of course but the initial inspiration was provided by baker Declan Ryan. The Ryans had drank these wines while in the area and brought the info home and shared it with Bubble Bros who made good use of it!

Bubbles elaborate: ..the Alvarinho, which bears the legend 'Vinho Regional Minho' ...... The Quinta de Gomariz Alvarinho is a terrifically appealing wine from beginning to end, and it's not hard to see what appealed to the Ryans about this thrilling liquid..Thank you Declan Ryan for a fantastic tip, not to mention all the great loaves from Midleton and Mahon Point market.. .. .. .” 

Portugal mini-series

Part IV (Vinho Verde, Lisboa and Alentejano).

Part III (Alentejo) 

Part 11 (Douro, Dão, Alentejo and Setubal.)  

Part 1 (Minho) 

A superb double from the Douro including a stunning White Half Dry Port .

A superb double from the Douro including a stunning White Half Dry Port. 

Casal Dos Jordōes Porto White Half Dry, 19%, 

€26.00 Limited availability. Manning's Emporium Ballylickey; Mary Pawle

Another treasure of the Douro!

This wine represents the Jordão family tradition of generous wines of quality. “All our vineyards are located in the river Torto valley with the rigorous selection of the best grape varieties of the Douro region to create excellent wines. The predominant varieties are the Malvasia Fina, Rabigato, Viosinho, Gouveio (Verdelho) and Côdega do Larinho.”

White port is made from white grapes, such as those above. You’ll find it in a variety of styles from dry to very sweet. You’ll see a lot of sweet white port with tonic water in glasses in the Port wine area. You can also find white port with a crisp dry finish and my favourite in this style, introduced in 1934 (the port, not me!), is Taylor’s Chip Dry.

And this is a new favourite! I had noted the recommendation to mix it with tonic but once I tasted it neat, I postponed that option, indefinitely! The pleasure on the palate is just so immense - you need nothing else at all. With its golden robe, its intense and complex aromas of dried fruit, all of which follow through to the palate, I knew I had found a magnificent and unusual wine that I would be so glad to hang around with. And that feeling was confirmed immediately by my coconspirator. Very Highly Recommended.

Casal dos Jordões has been in business since 1870, always in possession of the Jordões family. But for a long time, they sold their wine in bulk. Then, in 1994, they started bottling their own and went on to become leaders in organic port production. And our white is a terrific example of their craft.

Casal Dos Jordōes Grande Reserva Douro (DOC) 2011, 14%

€23.00 New to the portfolio; queries to Mary Pawle

This full-bodied dark-ruby wine comes from the hot and dry Douro region of Portugal and is made from much the same grapes as port. Intense ripe fruit aromas, including a touch of fig, some toasty touches too. No shortage of those fruit flavours in the slightly sweet spicy palate. It is voluminous, round, with a beautiful structure and a persistent finish. Very Highly Recommended.

Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca are the grapes featured, all organic and grown on shale soil (from the same family as schist). Interestingly, both hands and feet are used in the transition. Picking is manual and the grapes are then crushed by foot in the lagar (a large stone trough). They say the technique permits great extraction of colour and long tannins.

Pairings recommended are tapas, grilled meat (especially lamb), grilled veg, strong casseroles. By the way, there is a possibility of some natural sediment, so decant if you wish. I did, but didn’t notice any sediment at all.

A Stunning Pinot Gris and a "more serious" Vinho Verde. Quite a double!

Quite a double!

A Stunning Pinot Gris and a "more serious" Vinho Verde.

Ata Rangi “Lismore” Pinot Gris Martinborough 2018, 13.5%, 

€35.99 wineonline.ie, The Corkscrew, The Ely Wine Store Maynooth

Pinot Gris, originally from Burgundy, is a relation of Pinot Noir. You’ll know the Italian version as Pinot Grigio but many Italian examples don’t reach the standard of this Martinborough wine. 

It has a beautiful light gold colour. Aromas of white and yellow fruits are quite intense. A luscious mouthfeel but the main feature on the palate is the fresh acidity, from attack to finalé. 

The grapes are harvested relatively late to enable the grapes to develop their full flavour profile, and that is certainly the case here. Great fruit, terrific texture and a long and concentrated finish. From a vineyard now 23 years old, the roots of the old vines drive metres deep into the gravels and consistently deliver fruit with great texture.

They say: A classic Pinot Gris originally influenced by the style of wines from Alsace but developed over the years into our own, uniquely Martinborough style. With just a few grams of residual sugar, Pinot Gris is a delicious stand-alone aperitif. It is also one of our favourite food and wine matching choices, especially for anything with heady spice and/or challenging flavours. 

The fruit is hand-picked and whole bunch pressed. Juice cold settled. A combination of ferments in small stainless tanks and 500 litre oak puncheons; in both cases left on lees for several months. Native yeast. No malolactic fermentation. Very impressive from start to finish and this distinctive wine with the Irish name is Very Highly Recommended.

Azevedo Reserva Vinho Verde (DOC) 2019, 12%, 

€18.99 Blackrock Cellar, Clontarf Wines, wineonline.ie, McHughs Off Licence, World Wide Wines, Alain and Christine Wine and Card Shop, The Ely Wine Store, Maynooth, J. J. O’Driscoll, The Cinnamon Cottage 

This Vinho Verde has a light yellow colour, and looks pristine in the glass. Lime leads the aroma charge, herbal notes in there too. Terrific concentration on the palate, more weight and texture than normal due to the skin contact and lees stirring during vinification plus an unmistakable acidity. A complex and compelling wine.

It is a blend of Loureiro (70%) and Alvarinho (30). You probably know that the Vinho Verde area is close to Spain where Alvarinho is called Albarino. Here, in the particular wine, Loureiro is credited with giving it intensity and freshness while Alvarinho contributes texture, creaminess and volume. All in all, a more serious Vinho Verde, well balanced with a persistent finish, and Highly Recommended.

No extremes during the 2019 season, though harvest occurred slightly later than usual. The conditions resulted in aromatically expressive wines with a fresh profile and balanced acidity. After fermentation, the wine was matured in stainless-steel tanks with "bâtonnage", stirring of the lees, for three months.

When Fernando Guedes acquired this historic estate in 1982, he revolutionised the viticulture by planting 35 hectares of cordon-trained vineyards, rather than the traditional high-trained pergolas, and built a modern winery with state-of-the-art facilities for the production of fresh and elegant wines. Today, winemaker António Braga makes an impressive range of whites, all marked by a signature freshness and pure and precise flavour and this is one of them.

If Douro or Duero is on the bottle label, you're on an Iberian winner. The River and its Wine.

The River and its Wine

The river begins its journey in the centre of the north of Spain and is called the Duero. Five hundred miles to the west, it enters the Atlantic at Porto where it is now called Douro. Not quite a river of wine but there is no shortage of the drink as you travel from east to west, from Spain to Portugal. Our first bottle below comes from the Spanish area known as Ribera del Duero (ribera means riverbank). In Portugal, the amazingly scenic Douro is perhaps best known as the home of Port but here too you will find excellent still wines such as the example below from Quinta Da Esteveira. 

Viña Fuentenarro “4 Mesas En Barrica” Ribera Del Duero (D0) 2018, 14%, 

€16.55 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

Tempranillo, in many Irish people’s minds, is the grape of Rioja. And it is. But, since the end of the 20th century, the 300 plus bodegas of Ribera Del Duero are also laying a strong claim to the grape by making some excellent wines with it.

This deep red Fuentenarro (from a family owned winery) is a 100% Tempranillo. Traditional aromas of black berry fruit, touch of spice. Big intro of fruit and spice, no shortage of acidity either, juicy yet dry. Powerful start eases smoothly down to  super-long finish. One to sip - a little goes a long way - and enjoy your long lunch or dinner as the sun goes down. Very Highly Recommended. That it is well priced is a bonus.

Wine has been produced in this beautiful region since Roman times, though it became well known outside of Spain only in the 1990s. North west of Madrid and south west of Rioja, in the Castilla y León region, the vines grow on a flowing swathe of land that’s approximately 115 kms long and 35 kms wide. 

The vast majority (including Fuentenarro, near La Horra) grow in the province of Burgos but some too in Segovia, Soria (Antidoto, for example) and Valladolid.

Two related factors that make Ribera different are the average altitude of 850 metres and the big variations in summer between the heat of the day and the cool of the night. The heat of the day promotes the ripening, the chill of the night preserves acidity. 

Casel Dos Jordões Quinta Da Esteveira Reserva Tinto Douro (DOC) 2014, 14.5%, €15.20 Mary Pawle

This organic Portuguese blend is a dark red colour. Rich and ripe aromas. Smooth, fruity and a bit spicy, a lovely mouthful with a good finish as well. Highly Recommended. Pretty well priced too.

The label indicates the blend is composed of 70% Touriga Franca, 20% Touriga Nacional, 10% Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo in Spain). It also recommends pairing with meat dishes, cheese, smoked meats and roasted chestnuts. 

Two of the grape varieties, the two Tourigas, are also used in the production of Port. The Jordoes family began producing wine from terraced vineyards on the slopes above the river Torto in 1870 and, since 1994 have championed the production of organic port. They are just one of quite a few Port producers also involved in still wine (no big surprise there!).

#DrinkResponsibly

Three Treasures of the Douro with ace winemaker Luís Sottomayor

Three Treasures of the Douro with ace winemaker Luís Sottomayor

On these hills -  the white wines originate

Luís (screenshot)

Offley Vintage Port 2018

Luís Sottomayor (left), head winemaker of Sogrape’s Douro and Port wines, threw down quite a challenge towards the end of Tuesday’s Liberty Wines Masterclass. He’s so convinced of the “great ageing potential’ of the Offley Port 2018 vintage that he asked Liberty to stage another gathering in 2045, inviting all of yesterday’s participants to meet and check up on the 2018!

Quite a few of us won’t be around then but you don't have to wait that long to enjoy this superb Port which is already drinking very well indeed. But what should you enjoy it with? Aside from good company, of course. Well, as Luis suggested, cheese and chocolate are the usual pairings, tried and tested over the decades.

But he came up with another one, a local Portuguese dish called Feijoada: beans, sausage, pork, vegetables (carrots etc), usually served with rice. “Cassoulet like” wrote participant Ligia Marques who texted in the details.

Luis started off by saying that Offley 18 is “a really classic vintage”. “We wanted to have a wine to be simpler, made for those who want to drink and understand what a classic vintage is, that they might go on and try other vintages. It is easy-drinking, tannins are there but are round.” The only difference from other vintages is that a higher quality of Tinto Roriz (perhaps better known to us as Tempranillo) was used. The others are Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca.

The aromas are pleasant, not overly complex: “Black fruit, balsamic, approachable, a wine for young consumers” “It is made from our best grapes and, on the palate, there are tannins and acidity (so many years in bottle ahead!). Very drinkable from now!”

In reponse to a question by wine-writer John Wilson, Luis said it was not easy to say how long it will last. “But is has all the essential components to live many, many years… will live after me!” Closure - why the regular cork? “This kind of cork is best for ageing the wine.”

Vinha Grande from Casa Ferreirinha

The pleasant morning masterclass continued with tastings of two Vinha Grande, one of the oldest brands of Casa Ferreirinha, itself one of the "pioneering" wine companies in the Douro. While the red was first produced in 1960, the white didn't appear until 2005. Then, as Luis explained: “We acquired high altitude vineyards in the Cima Corgo region with lots of white wine varieties.”

 

Casa Ferreirinha Vinha Grande Douro (DOC) Douro Branco 2019, 13%

Casa Ferreirinha Vinha Grande Douro (DOC)  Douro Tinto 2017, 14%

Multiple varieties are used in the Branco. The main ones are Viosinho for its aroma and Arinto/Pedema for freshness. Fifty per cent of the wine was matured in new French oak barrels for 6 months and 50% kept in stainless steel tanks before the final blend is assembled and bottled.

Luis: “Very fresh and elegant, white fruit in the aromas, some citrus, a little passionfruit. I don’t like to say minerality - I feel that doesn’t exist but the soil and the stones of the Douro do. You can feel the acidity and freshness on the palate (because of the altitude), a nicer style of Douro white."

"The grapes come from a big property, amazing quantity of different kinds of grapes, helps us every year to compose the best wines!” Must say, I loved it. It's got everything: aromatics, flavour, mouthfeel, finish. Top notch!

The red is also a blend, the fruit taken from across the Douro’s regions. Soil here by the way is all schist. The terroir and the winemaking makes for another gorgeous wine. Luis pointed to its harmony, elegance, acidity, body and aromas. “It is easy to drink but also can go with sophisticated food and lasts well in the bottle.” The grapes used are Touriga Franca (45%), Touriga Nacional (30), Tinta Roriz (20) and Tinta Barroca (5).

It spends 12 months  in French oak “not new”. “We do not want to have the aroma of oak but use it instead as a medium to knit the blend. We always like a good freshness in our wines. And the first job of wine is to pair with food.”

That led to a question: “What is your favourite food with the red?

“I prefer meat usually but Vinha Grande is more elegant and goes well with dried cod - we eat a lot of that in Portugal! And it’s brilliant with octopus.”

For me, this was another beauty, smooth, packed with flavours and fresh on the balanced palate, magnificent depth, rounded tannins and the finish is smooth, dry and long.

#drinkresponsibly

Distinctive Wines From Jura and Vinho Verde

Distinctive Wines From Jura and Vinho Verde

Rijckaert Chardonnay Arbois (AOC) 2018, 13.5%

Colour is a light to mid straw. Nose is fairly intense with floral and fruity elements. And the refreshing fruit with minerality and a superb acidity is the highlight of the fresh palate. Terrific wine with a lip-smacking deep-reaching finalé. The notes that came with the box declared it “in line with great Burgundy whites”. Oh yeah? Oh yes! Very Highly Recommended.

Wine Mason, who collaborate with Bradley’s, tell us that Domaine Rijckaert has small holdings in both Jura and Macon. Under owner and winemaker Florent Rouve, the Domaine produces tangy, lemony, stony and mineral Savignin ouillé which ages well. The Chardonnays from both Jura (Arbois is in the Jura) and Macon are very fine, spending a long time on lees without stirring and are fermented and aged in older oak barrels.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that there such a strong similarity between the Jura and Burgundy as the viticultural soils of both come from the same geological stage, more than 150 million years old: the Jurassic (think Jurassic Park!).

The website has a few food pairing hints: Jura trout with butter and flaked almonds; Thick fillet of wild tandoori-inspired salmon; plus oysters, octopus, snails, Peking Duck.

Cazas Novas Avesso Single Variety Vinho Verde (DOC) 2018, 13%

Very pale straw colour in this single variety Vinho Verde. Pleasant aromas, peach, citrus and floral. Barely a sign of the spritz that you may be expecting with a Vinho Verde but the fruit is lively (citrus and apple), the acidity is also engaging. 

All in all, a fresh and friendly wine and should be a good pairing with a plate of sardines if you’re on holidays in Portugal and very acceptable as an aperitif in any country. Could also pair well with a Lobster Roll from Sage or The Lobster Man (Midleton Farmers Market). Serve at 8-10 degrees. Highly Recommended.

The Avesso, by the way, is a wonderful semi-fragrant variety which has real weight and flavour but we don’t see it solo, as here, very often. It is grown in Northern Portugal and is sometimes touted “as the rising star of Vinho Verde”. Other white grapes that can turn up in the local blend include Arinto, Loureiro and Trajadura.

Bradley’s Mixed Box #2 (is a collaboration with Wine Masons) and consists of Niepoort Ritual DAO along with two other reds, a Horizon de Bichot Pinot Noir and a Walter Massa Barbera. The three whites are the Rijckaert Arbois Chardonnay, this Cazas Novas Vinho Verde, and a Venture Riesling. Total cost is €125.00. Sorry, I don’t have confirmed individual prices but you should get the Vinho Verde for around 15 euro, the Arbois for about 25.