Tag Archive | "Portuguese wine"
Revealed: Tom Cannavan’s 50 Great Portuguese Wines
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 [...]
Continue reading...My top five wines of the year: Portugal
Posted Thursday 30th December 2010
The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on which wines made the most lasting impression. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I revealed my top five Australian and Loire wines. Today it’s Portugal’s turn. Five wines might seem fairly paltry after the unveiling of My 50 Great Portuguese Wines 2010 in February. This selection was finalised last December since when [...]
Continue reading...Top table wine from Madeira: Primeira Paixão Verdelho 2009
Posted Wednesday 1st December 2010
Last year, I learned that two of Portugal’s best known winemakers, Rui Reguinga and Francisco Albuquerque (pictured), were collaborating on a new table wine project in Madeira. At last, I’ve caught up with the wine, Primeira Paixão, in its second (2009) vintage. I must say, it’s very impressive indeed – my tasting note below. Multi-award winning winemaker Albuquerque is responsible [...]
Continue reading...Quinta de Soalheiro Alvarinho Vinho Verde: a vertical and, first taste, Soalheiro Dócil
Posted Monday 29th November 2010
Soalheiro means sunny so, in this icy weather, the thought of Quinta de Soalheiro’s sunny slopes is as warming as the memory of the wines themselves, among my favourite whites. Owners the Cerdeira family specialise in Alvarinho, which thrives in the warmer, drier north of the Vinho Verde, in the sub-regions of Monçao and Melgaço. [...]
Continue reading...Organic wines from Portugal, slowly turning over a new leaf
Posted Sunday 28th November 2010
With the copy off my desk on my Decanter Portugal feature, next up I’ll start reviewing the copy on Portugal, Port & Madeira for Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine’s 2012 edition so, with Portugal in mind, here’s an interesting little snippet of information I picked up from fellow Portuguese specialist writer Richard Mayson. Mayson owns Quinta do Centro [...]
Continue reading...Baga Rebel & Baga Friends
Posted Friday 26th November 2010
Next month at the Wines of Portugal Conference, the focus will be on Touriga Nacional, widely touted as Portugal’s flagship variety. The event kicks off on 9 December with Portugal’s Top 10 Touriga Nacional and you can find out more about the conference here. I love what Touriga Nacional brings to a blend but, if there’s a Portuguese red [...]
Continue reading...Castas: 30% off Portuguese wines, including Alvaro Castro
Posted Monday 15th November 2010
The deals are coming thick and fast at the moment – a veritable carousel – take your pick! On Saturday I posted a blog (here) about Halifax Wine Company’s deals on Port, including a mixed case of gorgeous 2007 Vintage Ports. Worth clubbing together and splitting the spoils if you ask me! This week and this week [...]
Continue reading...Portuguese wines at the Wine Gang’s Christmas Fair: top tips & discounts!
Posted Saturday 23rd October 2010
ViniPortugal UK’s October newsletter contains good news for Portuguese wine lovers. First, ViniPortugal have negotiated a special ticket price of £15 for The Wine Gang’s Christmas Fair at Vinopolis, London on the 6th November (quote code ‘TWG15’ when purchasing tickets from www.ticketsoup.com). Second, the following discounts are available on Portuguese wines: 15% off Ince Wines’ [...]
Continue reading...Sweet tooth? Some divine Portuguese food & fortified matches
Posted Tuesday 19th October 2010
I really love the edge of tannin and acidity of Portuguese wines. It makes them super food friendly, a fact which my hosts at Afros well understood (see the report of my July visit here), and of which I was reminded, presenting a Portuguese tasting last week. We didn’t have food but, for the quieter, less fruit-driven wines, put [...]
Continue reading...Douro4u – a promising group of Douro producers
Posted Tuesday 28th September 2010
I’m heading up to Orange today, a cool climate mountainous region in New South Wales, Australia, a country which is renowned for its consumer friendly wine labels. Well it’s not often you come across a Portuguese label that “does what it says on the tin,” but Douro4u, a group of producers from, surprise, surprise, the Douro, another [...]
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Posted Monday 6th June 2011
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