Posts Tagged ‘Portugal’
MWG January 8th tasting: A pair of Dão reds
Dão 2011, Reserva, Quinta da Pellada/Àlvaro Castro ($28.25, 11902106)
A blend of Alfrocheiro (65%) and Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz (35%) from vines between 25 and 65 years old. Manually harvested. Fermented with indigenous yeasts and minimal intervention in large concrete and Ganimede stainless steel tanks. Matured in fifth-fill, 400-litre French oak barrels. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: Rézin.
Mainly plum with hints of licorice, slate and white pepper and a surprising whiff of spruce beer. Fruit-dense yet remarkably fresh in the mouth. Subliminally structured. Smoky minerals add ballast and linger well into the long finish. Such a beautifully balanced, pure and drinkable wine. Hugely enjoyable if primary now; potentially sublime after another four or five years in the bottle. (Buy again? Imperatively.)
Dão 2011, Duque de Viseu, Quinta dos Carvalhais ($14.95, 00546309)
Quinta dos Carvalhais is the Dão arm of Portugese giant Sogrape. Contrary to what SAQ.com claims, this is a blend of Alfrocheiro (28%), Touriga Nacional (28%), Jaen (20%) and Tinta Roriz (18%). The grape varieties are vinified separately. The grapes are destemmed and gently crushed, then gravity-transferred to temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks for six days’ fermentation and maceration. The free-run juice is transferred to stainless steel tanks, the skins to a pneumatic press, with the press juice being added to the free-run juice for malolactic fermentation. After blending, a fraction of the wine is matured for 12 months in used French oak barrels while the remainder ages in stainless steel tanks “regularly undergoing clarification” (whatever that means) and micro-oxygenation. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Charton Hobbs.
Dark fruit, savoury spices and notes of latex glove and rose. Smooth and supple with good acidity and yielding tannins. The ripe-sweet fruit is darkened by earthy minerals. There’s pleasing surface aplenty but little depth. Spices faintly overtone the clean if somewhat abrupt finish. Not memorable but not bad for a $15 industrially produced wine. (Buy again? If more interesting options aren’t available, sure.)
(Flight: 7/8)
Get a grip?
Douro 2012, Diálogo, Niepoort ($16.85, 12098033)
A blend of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo) and Tinta Amarela, among others (for what it’s worth, SAQ.com gives the proportions of the named varieties as 40%, 30%, 20% and 10% respectively), from vines averaging ten to 20 years old. Manually harvested. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in stainless steel vats, malolactic fermentation in large barrels and stainless steel vats. The wine is matured 12 months in used 225-litre French oak barrels and stainless steel tanks. 13% ABV. If I’m not mistaken, the wine is marketed with country-specific comic strip labels and even cuvée names (e.g. Twisted, not Diálogo, in the States). The local bottling – titled Hunter – comes with a critter label of sorts drawn by Montrealer Claude Cloutier. Quebec agent: Alivin Canada.
Subdued, dry-smelling nose of plum, black cherry, pencil lead, old wood, savoury herbs and definite balsam notes. Disconcerting on first sip: not limp but virtually gripless. The acidity and tannins are so soft your attention settles on the supple, pure and fresh if dry fruit. A faint lactic vanilla streak colours the otherwise ephemeral finish. A half-hour in the carafe adds a little depth and vibrancy, but this welterweight is most notable for its elusive substantiality. Looking for a red wine to go with your piri-piri chicken? You got it. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Drunken cathedral
Pardon the Debussy pun…
Dâo Reserva 2008, Catedral, Cavas Velhas ($13.45, 00739680)
Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo, 50%), Alfrocheiro (30%) and Touriga Nacional (20%). Fully destemmed. Macerated and fermented in temperature-controlled (28°C) tanks. Matured for six months in Allier oak barrels and two months in the bottle. 13% ABV. $11.15 in Ontario. Quebec agent: Mosaiq.
Red plum, blackberry, spice, cocoa, blood, slate and something fresh, green and sappy, like crushed berry leaves and stems. Medium-bodied. Smooth but textured by nipping acidity, fine tannins and a faint astrengency. The nose’s slate and sap come out on the fair finish. The ripe fuit is a little too laden with oak. Were it not, this would be better – a pure and juicy quaffer. As it is, not bad, though best served lightly chilled and with food than without. (Buy again? Meh, though people less allergic oak needn’t hesitate.)
MWG January 16th tasting (1/8): Loureiro like we like it
La QV’s Cyril Kérébel joined the Mo’ Wine Group for a private import tasting centred around the agency’s newly arrived Georgian wines. We wet our whistles with a Portuguese white.
Vinho verde 2012, Branco, Quinta da Palmirinha ($21.75, La QV, 6 bottles/case)
If the estate, which is located in Gatão in the northern Porto district, has a website, I’ve not found it. The owner/winemaker is Fernando de Magalhães Pinto de Paiva. In any case, this 100% biodynamically farmed Loureiro is manually harvested, fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured 12 months. It sees only stainless steel until bottling. Unfiltered and unfined, with no added sulphur (total sulphites: 76 mg/L). Vegan-compatible. 12% ABV.
Attractive nose: chalk, lemon/lime zest, distant meadow flowers, faint hint of ash. Smooth, almost caressing, on the surface but intense at its core, alive with soft-edged yet coursing acidity. Pleasingly broad and long; deep enough too. The fruitiness makes you think there’s some residual sugar on the finish, though in fact the wine is very dry. Similar wines can be had at the SAQ but none quite this charming and delicious. (Buy again? Yes.)
Would love to taste the estate’s red vinho verde, though it looks like I’d have to cross the pond to do so.
MWG October 17th tasting (1/5): Albariño duo, Alvarinho solo
The October 17th tasting focused on Spanish wines, including five from the day’s Cellier New Arrivals release.
Rias Baixas 2011, Albariño, Adegas Morgadio ($20.35, 11962686)
100% Albariño. Made using free-run juice from estate grown grapes. Fermented for 15 days at 16ºC. If this sees any oak, you can’t taste it. 13% ABV. One of the Cellier New Arrivals wines.
Fresh, crushed seashell and lemon nose with peach and floral notes. Dry and tense. The crisp acidity is softened by the extract, which is surprisingly dense for such a fleet wine. Light but complex set of flavours, including underripe pear, citrus zest, white spices, maybe some powdered ginger. Long minerally finish and a lingering tang. Balanced and refreshing. (Buy again? Yes.)
Vinho regional Minho 2012, Alvarinho, Colheita Seleccionada, Quinta de Gomariz ($21.00, 11895225)
100% Alvarinho from 12-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Fermented with indigenous yeasts for seven to ten days. Matured for two months. Prevented from undergoing malolactic fermentation. Sees only stainless steel. Fined and filtered before bottling. 12.5% ABV.
Aromatic: lime, peach, white flowers, white sand. A notch sweeter and tarter than the Spaniards and possessed of a light spritz, this was clearly the ringer. Fresh and flowing. The fruit is balanced by tangy acid and sits on a chalky substrate. The long, tart, dryish finish has a white pepper note. It could be the different contexts, but this didn’t strike me as memorable as the 2011. Still plenty good though. Would make a great match for fresh crab. (Buy again? Yes.)
Rias Baixas 2011, Albariño, Legado del Conde, Adegas Morgadio ($19.95, 11155403)
100% Albariño. Made from first-press juices. Fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. 12.5% ABV.
A sterner nose, more about minerals than fruit and with a clean sweat-like component. Dry and fruity on the palate with chugging acidity, a quartzy undertow and a sour-edged finish. Enjoyable on its own but coming across as a little tighter and simpler than its stablemate. (Buy again? Sure though not in preference to the only-40-cents-more-expensive standard cuvée.)
Alternate Altano
Douro 2010, Organic / Biologique, Altano ($16.95, 11157097)
Altano is owned by the Symington family of Port fame. This is a 100% Touriga Nacional made from grapes grown in the estate’s three organcially farmed vineyards, planted in the 1980s, in the Vilariça Valley in the Douro Superior sub-region, near the Spanish border. After manual sorting, the grapes are fermented at 25-26ºC in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats with extended maceration and regular pump-overs. The wine is matured ten months in second-vintage French oak barrels. 12.9% ABV.
Fragrant – blackberry, blueberry and spice – at first but then shut down (or maybe my sinuses shut down). Medium-bodied and thus lighter than most Douros (which regularly clock in at 14%, 15% and even 15.5%), and all the better for it. Sweet-fruited at its core but also savoury with slate, old wood, a faint stemminess and a bitter plum pit note. The tannins are light, pervasive and just a little raspy and there’s plenty of acidity to brighten and sour the fruit. Finishes dry and surprisingly long. Nothing profound but fresh, tasty and, as the French untranslatably say, digeste. A natural with grilled pork or chicken and a definite step up from the regular Altano. Oddly, though this is a new arrival, there aren’t many bottles around. (Buy again? Yes.)
MWG June 20th tasting (8/8): Two savoury reds
Dâo 2008, Reserva, Àlvaro Castro ($25.20, 11902106)
Touriga Nacional (65%) and Tinta Roriz (35%). Fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Transferred to old French oak barrels for 14 months for malolactic fermentation and maturation. 13% ABV.
Coffee, plum, blackberry, spice, background herbs. Smooth, rich and dry – the fruit is ripe but not sweet or heavy. Fine-grained tannins, firm acidity, some subtle slate and a long finish. Remarkably balanced and pure. Perhaps a shade less impressive than its white sibling, this is still one of the most elegant red Dâos I’ve tasted. Sr. Castro’s got talent. (Buy again? Yes.)
Faro 2010, Rosso, Azienda Agricola Bonavita ($37.50, oenopole, NLA though found on resto wine lists)
Faro is a DOC located between Messina and Mount Etna on Sicily’s northeast coast. This is a blend of organically farmed Nerello Mascalese (60%), Nerello Cappuccio (30%) and Nocera (10%) from six- to 50-year-old vines. Manually harvested. The winemaking is non-interventionist: spontaneous fermentation, no additives, long maceration with manual punch-downs, gentle pressing in a basket press. Matured 16 months in neutral oak botti and four months in the bottle. 13.5% ABV.
Complex, wafting nose of red cherry, faint rubber, cut wood, dried herbs, dried ink and eventually cheese. Medium-bodied and fluid but with a dense core of ripe, balsamic- and anise-accented red fruit. Tannins and acidity are firm, though more deep-running than upfront. The bitter-edged finish is long and savoury. A pleasure to drink, this would make an interesting ringer in a flight of terroir-driven Etna wines; I suspect it would come across as rounder and earthier but no less fresh or delicious. (Buy again? Yes.)
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming…
…to bring you the following public service announcement.
Snow crab season officially opened in the Gaspé last week and the crustacean is now on sale at Montreal fishmongers, usually as cooked sections but sometimes whole and live. Though I got my sections yesterday at Nouveau Falero on Parc, the freshest, tastiest and least water-logged are usually found at the Délices de la Mer stall at Jean Talon Market. The sweet, delicate flesh is best savoured as is, unspoiled by so much as a drop of lemon juice or a dip in melted butter. For the quickest, easiest access to the meat, set aside the lobster crackers and pick up a pair of sturdy kitchen shears. The perfect accompaniment? Glass after glass of a less than bone-dry white. For example…
Vinho Verde 2011, Loureiro, Quinta de Gomariz ($15.30, 11895233)
100% Loureiro from 11-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Fermented five to seven days with native yeasts. Not allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation. Matured off the lees for two months. Sees only stainless steel. Filtered before bottling. 11.5% ABV.
Fresh and appealing nose of white grapefruit, lime, white sand, faint flowers and powdered honeycomb. Soft-textured and ever so slightly sprtizy. A flash of ripe grape and citrus on the attack quickly turns dry and gains some bitter pith that crescendos through the mouth. Crunchy minerals and tangy acid outlast the fruit on the long, rainwatery finish. The sour, bitter, quartzy aftertaste forces you back for another sip to get that momentary flash of sweet fruit, starting the cycle anew. Long but not broad or deep. A fresh, pure, thirst-slaking delight.
While this would make an excellent aperitif or summer sipper, it proved very good with the snow crab, whose sweet flesh surprisingly brought out the wine’s sweetness and increased its weight. That said, Gomariz’s more powerful Alvarinho would probably make an even better match. And, of course, as Hugh Johnson says, “crab and Riesling are part of the Creator’s plan.”
Branco impressionante
Dão Reserva 2011, Quinta da Pellada/Álvaro de Castro ($21.25, 11895364)
Encruzado (60%), Cercial (35%) and Bical (5%). Fermented in small batches for two months, followed by maturation, with stirring of the lees, and bottling. More specific technical info is hard to come by, but I suspect this sees no wood. 13% ABV. SAQ.com says its closure is a screwcap but, of course, it’s a cork (I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a Portuguese wine closed with anything but).
Understated and elegant, becoming more expressive as it warms: grape, cut apple, distant mangosteen, a whiff of limestone and camphor. On the palate, it’s dry and faintly waxy, savoury yet fresh: lemon juice and a veritable matrix of minerals with great acidic backbone. There’s a bitter, almost astringent undertow from the attack through the long finish. With the exception of wines from the north of the country, Portuguese whites are often soft. This is anything but. Its tension, minerality and texture are remarkable, akin to those found in some of the better whites from Italy and southern France. For best results, drink it at several degrees warmer than fridge temperature and consider carafing it an hour or two in advance. While it made an acceptable match for Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s excellent roasted chicken with lemon and Jerusalem artichokes, I suspect it will really shine alongside simply prepared seafood.
Verging on Vinho Verde
Vinho regional Minho 2011, Alvarinho, Quinta de Gomariz ($20.20, 11895225)
Despite being a young estate (2005 was its first vintage), Quinta de Gomariz has come to be regarded as one of the region’s top producers. This cuvée is 100% Alvarinho from 11-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Fermented (with indigenous yeasts) and matured in stainless steel for seven to ten days and two months respectively. Not allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation. Fined and filtered before bottling. 12.5% ABV.
White grapefruit and nectarine dusted with chalk and white pepper. In the mouth, there’s a faint spritzy tingle and a hint of sweetness on the attack that’s quickly soured by acidity. The effect is fresh and lightly fruity, like biting into a chilled green grape. A rainwatery mid-palate leads to a citrusy finish with more white pepper and lingering green apple. Simple but pure and lovely. This went well enough with grilled squid but is really waiting for snow crab season, the crustacean either served plain or dressed in a light herb vinaigrette. Can also see it working with simple Cantonese seafood dishes like fish steamed with ginger and green onions or shimp and scallop kow (stir-fried with bamboo shoots, black mushrooms and snow peas).
Brett happens 