Members welcomed Wine Writer and Portuguese expert Richard Mayson on his first visit to the Club. He claimed to be jetlagged, but there was no sign of this in a sparkling and fascinating Tasting. Richard fell in love with wine (and Portuguese wine in particular) when he worked in bars and restaurants on the Algarve during his gap year. Later at University in Sheffield he studied the Portuguese landscape and climate as part of his degree, and wrote his thesis on the micro-climates of vineyards in Europe. After five years in the marketing department of the Wine Society, he wrote his first book – on Portugal’s Wines and Winemakers, naturally. He now works as a freelance wine writer, author and lecturer specialising in Portuguese wines, Port and Madeira, whilst tending the vines at his own small but distinguished wine estate, Quinta do Centro, near Portalegre in the Alentejo.
Quinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde 2011 (11% ABV)
The Tasting kicked off with a Vinho Verde from Sogrape, Portugal’s largest wine producer and creator of its most famous wine – Mateus Rosé (see footnote 1). The Portuguese hold very much to the tradition of using indigenous grapes (2), and this wine is made from 70% Loureiro and 30% Pedernã grown in the north-west of the country, close to the Atlantic coast. The Minho region has a relatively cool climate, with high rainfall, producing wines with low alcohol and refreshingly high acidity. ‘Quinta’ translates as ‘farm’ – although this quinta is a more of an imposing manor house, situated near the town of Barcelos and surrounded by vineyards. The wine has a fragrant character with floral, lime and apple aromas and a hint of Riesling-like minerality. On the palate it is bone dry, with a prickle of CO2, intense citrus notes, high acidity and low alcohol. A perfect wine for a summer’s day (sadly few and far between this year), it is simple, refreshing and ideal with fish and seafood. Price circa £7 from the Wine Society.
Quinta do Passadouro Douro Branco 2010 (12.5% ABV)
From the heart of the Douro Valley, in the Pinhão Valley. Though only 100 kilometres from Barcelos, the climate in this region could not be more different. The drop in annual rainfall is particularly marked – from 1200mm in the Minho down to only 400mm in the Douro, and in summer temperatures can often rise into the 40s centigrade. This estate belongs to a Belgian family, and the vineyard is situated at altitude, guaranteeing a cooler climate, and the wine derives its minerally character from the poor schist and granite soils. It is made from Viosinho and Rabigato (tail of cat) grapes in a full-bodied style that will age well in bottle. This is a youthful example with bright appley fruit, fresh acidity and defined minerality, and a delightful honeysuckle character on the finish. Price circa £10-11.
Quinta dos Carvalhais Encruzado Dão Branco 2008 (13.5% ABV)
Another wine from Sogrape, this time from the modern Quinta dos Carvalhais winery in the Dão region. The Dão used to be dominated by local cooperatives, producing rather dull and old-fashioned wines from inter-planted vineyards for the domestic market, but it is now emerging as a leading wine region with a proliferation of single estates producing modern and vibrant styles. The Encruzado grape is unique to the Dão, and this example is barrel-fermented and aged for 6 months in new French oak, imparting something of a Burgundian quality to the wine. Fragrant, with floral notes, white fruits and well-integrated oak on the nose, it is a soft, rich wine with flavours of honey and butter and fine balancing acidity. It is a wine that will take bottle age. Price circa £19.
Callabriga Reserva Dão Tinto 2004 (13.5% ABV)
Made from 3 indigenous varieties – Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo), Alfrocheiro and Touriga Nacional, this is another wine from the Sogrape stable. It is made at the Quinta dos Carvalhais winery, but grapes are sourced from a number of different growers – all under the supervision of Sogrape viticulturists – in the Dåo region. The wine spends 12 months in new oak, and this example showed evident maturity. On the nose, aromas of cherries and berries together with a floral quality deriving from the Touriga Nacional and a hint of tobacco. An almost austere cherry fruit character on the palate, together with some mineral notes, firm tannins and distinct acidity, was offset by length and freshness, and softened by ageing in both oak and bottle. Price circa £19.
Quinta dos Carvalhais Colheita Dão Tinto 2008 (13.5% ABV)
Another single quinta red from Sogrape, this time showing a distinct ruby-purple colour indicative of its relative youth. The estate was purchased by Sogrape in 1988 and comprises 50ha under vine, with a modern, state-of-the-art winery. Colheita means ‘harvest’, and this wine is only made in particularly good years. Produced from Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Alfrocheiro grapes and aged in French and American oak for about a year, it has a long shelf-life and will remain in fine drinking condition for up to 10 years. It has aromas of morello cherry with freshness and finesse and a hint of vanilla, plus a well-defined ‘hedgerow’ character. In the mouth there are flavours of blackcurrant and dark chocolate/coffee. Tannins are powerful, but the oak is well-integrated and the fruit has sufficient substance and fresh acidity to stand up to the tannins as the wine ages. Price circa £27.
Quinta do Passadouro Douro Reserva Tinto 2007 (14.5% ABV)
Very deep, dark purple. Made from the same Port wine grapes (3) as the previous wine (60 year old vines), foot-trodden and aged in new and one year old oak for 12 months. Powerful and concentrated with big, muscular tannins, ripe black berry fruit and excellent length. Tight and beautifully balanced, it will age well and keep for 20 years. The 2009 vintage of this wine was awarded 5 stars in Decanter earlier this year. Price circa £38.
Duas Pedras Vinho Regional Alentejano Tinto 2010 (13.2% ABV)
This is the first wine from Richard’s own estate in the north of the Alentejo region, south of the river Tagus (the name means ‘Two Stones’). Most of the Alentejo is a vast rolling plain, but Quinta do Centro is situated close to the Spanish border at an altitude of 600m on schist and granite soils. Richard describes this as “an accidental wine”, made as it is from 60% Touriga Nacional and 38% Syrah, with 2% of Viognier thrown in. He had an instinct that the Syrah grape was right for the soil and altitude of the region, and planted it in 2006, after acquiring the property in 2005. It happened to be planted next to the Touriga Nacional, so he “threw the two grapes into the vat together”. The spicy structure of the Syrah served to “calm down” the floral and aromatic character of the Touriga Nacional, and the resulting wine, handled with minimal oak and bottled young, is rich, soft and fruit-driven. It may not be made entirely from indigenous varietals, but “it works”! Price circa £8.
Pedra Basta Vinho Regional Alentejano Tinto 2009 (14% ABV)
Translating as ‘Enough Stone’, this is also from Richard’s Sonho Lusitano (Lusitanian Dream) company. Made from Trincadeira, Tinta Roriz and Alicante Bouschet, plus less than 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, it spends a year in new and first use French oak, and is characterised by lovely fresh black fruits, soft tannins (in the international style) and a fruits of the forest ‘crispness’. It is built to last for 5-10 years, and Richard reported that the 2005 vintage is still drinking well. Price circa £12.50.
Pedra e Alma Vinho Regional Alentejano Tinto 2009 (14.5% ABV)
Another wine from Sonho Lusitano Vinhos. 2009 is the first vintage for this wine, which translates as ‘Stone and Soul’. It is made from grapes from 30 year old vines, mostly batch-planted in the late 1980s: Trincadeira, Alicante Bouschet, Grand Noir and Aragonés, plus some unidentified grapes, comprise a traditional Portuguese ‘mix’. Only produced in the best years, it is fermented in traditional open-top fermenters and plunged with monkey sticks, then spends 18 months in French oak with varying levels of toast. It is a robust, complex wine, redolent of concentrated older vine fruit with a touch of raw oak that will soften and become more integrated with bottle age. It is a wine built to last, with a powerful tannin structure and huge concentration - chosen by Julia Harding MW as one of the 50 Best Portuguese Wines this year. Price circa £25.
The island of Madeira, lying off the coast of North Africa to the south-west of the European mainland, was discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century. Madeira forged strong trading links with the Americas in the 17th century, and European wines were planted on this densely wooded island to produce wines that helped to counteract scurvy. Spirit was added to help unstable wines survive long sea voyages, but it was the distinctive quality of wines exposed to high temperatures in the holds of ships passing through the equator that created an extraordinary demand for Madeira wines. . Madeira rises steeply out of the Atlantic Ocean, and its sub-tropical climate lends itself to the cultivation of grapes that thrive in the heat, low cloud, heavy rain and volcanic soils, but also retain their acidity, thereby keeping the wines fresh. Vines are planted at high density all over the island – often pergola-trained so that vegetables can be grown underneath. High quality Madeira is produced through slow oxidation of fortified wines in large oak casks in warm lodges, at temperatures ranging from 15-30oC. Here the sugars slowly caramelise (maderise) over a period of years to produce wines that are the world’s most resilient and longest living – or, as Richard put it, “virtually indestructible”!
Blandy’s 10 Year Old Verdelho Madeira (19% ABV)
Grape spirit is added to the base wine (100% Verdelho) to arrest fermentation after four days at the desired level of sweetness. The wine is then aged naturally for 10 years in seasoned American oak casks. Amber in colour with a golden rim, it has a fresh and fragrant bouquet of dried fruits and spice with nicely defined caramel and marmalade aromas. Concentrated, medium-dry and rich with burnt orange flavours, it has a long, zesty, bittersweet finish. Price from £22.
Henriques & Henriques 10 Year Old Bual Madeira (20% ABV)
100% Bual aged in large oak casks at ambient temperature for 10 years. From Madeira’s oldest producer, this wine is deep amber in colour and slightly sweeter in style than the Verdelho. Grapes are grown at lower altitude on the south side of the island. This is a wine with a ‘lifted’ quality and great purity of character - with richness, concentration, texture and plenty of acidity to punctuate the richness and flavours of burnt orange, caramel and toffee. When to drink? With Portuguese custard tarts perhaps?. Or “for Elevenses”, as Richard suggested….? Price circa £23.
A highly engaging speaker, Richard held the room spellbound throughout a fascinating and informative evening. Club members had the opportunity to taste some very distinctive wines, which only just began to illustrate the riches that Portugal has to offer. The warmth and duration of the applause at the end of the Tasting spoke volumes, and the Club looks forward to welcoming Richard back as a guest speaker in the not too distant future.
1 [Mateus Rosé became a hugely successful brand in the 1950s and 60s. It was created when many traditional markets were cut off during World War II and the entrepreneur Fernando Van Zeller Guedes discovered a way to help growers to find an outlet for their surplus grapes. Mateus, a pétillant rosé slightly sweetened to increase its commercial appeal, was the result. The cantil bottle was modelled on the shape of World War I water bottles, and the rights to the image on the label was the result of a one-off payment to the owners of a baroque Palace at nearby Vila Real. It is, in fact, a well-made wine. Grapes used in its production come mostly from central Portugal, and the must is kept under sulphur to be fermented all the year round so that it is as fresh as possible.]
2 [Some Portuguese varieties can be traced back to the Phoenicians (1550 to 300 BC), and the University of Davis in California is conducting DNA testing on many of these. Up to 80 varieties are grown in the Douro Valley alone - formerly inter-planted in such a random way that nobody knew quite what was what. It was only in the 1970s that the Portuguese started planting pure varietals in blocks.]
3 [Port wines were originally fermented dry with alcohol added as a preservative, and it is only relatively recently that they have become sweeter in style. The iconic Barca Velha, originating from the 1950s and the first wine to acquire an international reputation, started a new wave of table wines made possible by modern methods of vinification - including temperature-controlled fermentation, stainless steel and ageing in new oak.]
CB/GH July 2012