Tag Archive | "Portuguese wine"
Filipa Pato: 10 years of experiments, time to go 100% Bairrada
Filipa Pato is cut from the same cloth as her father, Luis Pato, Bairrada’s leading winemaker. She’s a restless winemaking soul, all to our benefit, or so I thought until she told me she’d no longer be making Silex! The 2008 vintage was a stand out wine of my selection of 50 Great Portuguese Wines [...]
Continue reading...Ageing very well: New Douro older vintages & maiden wines
Posted Friday 20th January 2012
Wednesday’s New Douro tasting threw up some delightful surprises. Though focused on the latest (red) releases from the 2009 vintage (which I’d already tasted in December), museum stocks had been generously raided, providing an opportunity to taste among the very first New Douro table wines. And they were thrilling, reinforcing what a very prodigious and precocious talent this traditional Port [...]
Continue reading...First taste: Maritávora – very superior Douro Superior wines from Jorge Serôdio Borges
Posted Friday 13th January 2012
Next Wednesday it’s the New Douro trade tasting at the Portuguese Embassy, London. I had a sneak preview in Oporto last month and the standard of the wines was very high – lots to like (click here for my brief report). Subsequently, I headed down to Lisbon for a 3 day generic tasting. Though the Douro wines I tasted there were [...]
Continue reading...J Portugal Ramos: 5 reasons to Reserva the Ramos, including a steal at Majestic
Posted Friday 16th December 2011
This year, the panel I chaired at Decanter World Wine Awards gave a Gold Medal and Regional Trophy to Tagus Creek Shiraz Trincadeira 2010 (see here for my write up). Thrillingly, it went on to scoop the International Trophy for a Red blend under £10, a real coup for Portugal and one of its great modernisers, João Portugal Ramos. [...]
Continue reading...Portugal: preliminary report, 2011 vintage
Posted Monday 10th October 2011
I’ve recently posted a heap of first hand reports from winemakers about the 2011 vintage in Australia, also Charles & Philippa Sydney’s annual preliminary vintage report on the Loire. Here’s ViniPortugal’s preliminary report on how 2011 is shaping up in Portugal: Overview “Compared to the 2010/2011 harvest Portugal expects a decrease in quantity in the region of 1.2 to [...]
Continue reading...Short & sweet: an overnight stopover & harvest in Portugal at L’AND Vineyards, Alentejo
Posted Monday 26th September 2011
The Guardian’s Fiona Beckett kindly flipped my way an invite to L’AND Vineyards in Evora, Alentejo, Portugal and, last Friday, I participated in a spot of harvesting. Owner Sousa Cunhal Group’s Jose Cunhal Sendim says wine is the driver, but it’s more accurate to say it’s the point of difference. Unlike Quinta da Amoreira da Torre, his [...]
Continue reading...Gold top: Quinta da Bacalhoã Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 & sister wine Vinhos Bacalhoã Quinta do Carmo Tinto 2007
Posted Thursday 25th August 2011
I’m a staunch supporter of Portugal’s native grape varieties. With over 450, why stray elsewhere? But even I have to admit that Quinta da Bacalhoã has a winning way with Cabernet Sauvignon. First made in 1979, it’s a terrific rendition of the variety – as rectilinear as they come, with its buttoned up concentrated fruit and straight-backed [...]
Continue reading...Symington Family Estate table wines, revolution & evolution
Posted Friday 19th August 2011
I’ve been presenting staff training this week for the D&D group of restaurants who are currently running a special menu in conjunction with The Evening Standard & ViniPortugal (click here for details). Among the wines I showed was Prats & Symington Post Scriptum 2008, which prompted me to write up my notes of my visit last [...]
Continue reading...Matching modern Chinese food with Portuguese wine at Hakkasan
Posted Wednesday 10th August 2011
With their edge of tannin and acidity and relatively restrained fruit, I’ve always thought Portuguese wines immensely food-friendly. Yesterday, I had fun exploring matches with modern Chinese dishes at a staff training session at Hakkasan, the Michelin-starred restaurant. The saliva glands were working overtime as we talked about food matches and tasted the wines – next time with food! [...]
Continue reading...Revealed: Tom Cannavan’s 50 Great Portuguese Wines
Posted Monday 6th June 2011
I’m looking forward to tasting Tom Cannavan’s 50 Great Portuguese Wines today and well remember the mix of excited anticipation and nerves which preceded the unveiling of my own selection of 50 Great Portuguese Wines last year! And looking at Tom’s list below, it’s great to see his endorsement of the leaps and bounds Portugal has made [...]
Continue reading...Tom Cannavan’s 50 Great Portuguese Wines: one week to go!
Posted Sunday 29th May 2011
A week tomorrow Tom Cannavan’s selection of 50 Great Portuguese Wines will be unveiled in a tasting at the Portuguese Ambassador’s Residence in Belgravia, London and, on 6th June in Edinburgh at The Balmoral Hotel. Together with the annual New Douro tasting, this focused event is a great way to keep tabs on the dynamic [...]
Continue reading...Popular Portugal: Jorge Moreira, Poeira & other favourites
Posted Friday 27th May 2011
Yesterday I discovered that Poeira is the best selling Portuguese wine in Harvey Nichols’ restaurant. At a tasting for the wine shop crew and sommeliers the elegant, finesseful and already dangerously digestible Poeira 2008 reinforced just why this wine is such a hit. And it was great to report on my recent visit to Quinta do Poeira with winemaker Jorge Moreira and explain [...]
Continue reading...National wine month: Portuguese wine tastings and deals over May
Posted Wednesday 4th May 2011
When I surveyed wine society members about Portuguese wines for my presentation to Portuguese producers in March, it rapidly became clear that even for wine enthusiasts, lack of knowledge is a major barrier to buying Portuguese wine. Well now there’s no excuse not to explore more Portuguese wines because, this month, National Wine Month, there’s a [...]
Continue reading...The UK’s leading Vinho Verde, a personal favourite, goes under screwcap
Posted Tuesday 3rd May 2011
When I spoke at 1.º Encontro e Prova Internacional de Vinho in Portugal about selling Portuguese wines in the UK market in March, an unpalatable truth that I felt duty-bound to point out was that, with just one exception, every Portuguese wine tasting I’ve presented in the last year has had a least 1, if [...]
Continue reading...Niepoort Big Day tasting: Niepoort Projectos wines & portfolio
Posted Thursday 28th April 2011
I’m off to one of the world’s most famous fortified wine hot spots tomorrow, the Douro. However, this trip will focus on table wines and not just from Portugal. As you may have seen in my feature about Portugal’s movers and shakers in this month’s (May) edition of Decanter, Portugal’s dynamic wine scene is proving fertile ground for some of the [...]
Continue reading...A great find: Julia Kemper organic wines from the Dão
Posted Wednesday 13th April 2011
Last month, I made another exciting new Dão discovery – the wines of Julia Kemper, from Quinta do Cruzeiro. Júlia de Melo Kemper, a Lisbon lawyer, told me that the quinta has been owned by her family for some 400 years. She acquired it after her father asked her to manage the farm in 2003. Motivated by vivid [...]
Continue reading...A rare vertical from Portugal’s “cathedral of wine” – Bussaco Palace Hotel
Posted Friday 8th April 2011
Next week, I’ll be 100% focused on Portugal as I chair the panel judging Portuguese table wines for Decanter World Wine Awards. Excitingly, we have a record breaking number of entries to taste – over 500 wines, so I’m looking forward to making some new discoveries to shout about when the results are released in [...]
Continue reading...The holy grail of perfect balance: Álvaro de Castro & Dirk Niepoort Dado/Doda vertical
Posted Monday 21st March 2011
Based a stone’s throw from Celorico da Beira, the venue for last week’s 1st Portugal International Wine Meeting & Tasting, leading local light Álvaro de Castro (pictured right) co-hosted a lunch with Douro dynamo Dirk Niepoort (pictured second from left) – a great opportunity to show a vertical of the pair’s red blend Dado/Doda, so-called because the [...]
Continue reading...A week in Portugal in pictures
Posted Sunday 20th March 2011
I’m just back from travels in the Douro, Bairrada and Celorico da Beira, Serra da Estrela where I was speaking at the 1st Portugal International Wine Meeting & Tasting. Quite a week, here are some pictures for now: First buds at Quinta das Carvalhas, the Douro: the 2011 growing season is underway! And when it all kicks [...]
Continue reading...The Douro: a round up of recent tasting highlights
Posted Monday 31st January 2011
In the last fortnight I’ve posted tasting notes on the latest releases from the Douro Boys (see here) and New Douro producers (see here). Below you’ll find the highlights from a generic tasting in Oporto last July – some familiar names but a couple of new ones too. I reckon that João Brito e Cunha’s Quinta [...]
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Posted Wednesday 25th January 2012
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