Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Esteva Douro 2007 - Casa Ferreirinha


ESTEVA TINTO 2007

Producer - Casa Ferreirinha

Region - Douro

Country - Portugal

Year - 2007

Varietals - Tinta Roriz; Touriga Franca; Tinta Barroca

Vol - 13,5%

Price Range: 4-6€ / 8-10$



This wine is not a surprising wine. It’s a daily simple wine with very good quality.

Made with traditional Douro varietals, the equilibrium is conferred by the presence of Tinta Barroca, the body of Touriga Franca and tannins of Tinta Roriz make this wine a good choice to pair with white meat and some salads.
It has a red fruits aroma very smooth and a ruby intense red color.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

I'm in!

Finally i've got the ticket!











Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Além 2006 - Enoforum

                 
                                              
ALÉM

Producer - Enoforum

Region - Alentejo

Country - Portugal

Year - 2006

Varietals - Syrah; Touriga Nacional

Vol - 14,5%

Price Range: 11-13€ / 17-19$



In the mouth you can feel a strong presence of tannins but it’s a very well balanced wine with a long finish. The presence of one of my favorite Portuguese varietals, Touriga Nacional, gives it an intense aroma of black fruits. The varietal syrah gives it a trace of black plums and explains the presence of high tannins.

It’s a great wine for meals with meat (also because of its “powerful” 14,5%) or just to drink it with some cheese (like i did).

The packaging is very elegant but I doubt that it makes it easy to find it in the middle of all the “noise” of a supermarket shelve.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Reload - Thanks to Enoforum

Last week I got few samples from a Portuguese winery – Enoforum. This company is situated in the capital of Alentejo, Évora. And it is part of a new generation of Portuguese wineries that believe that making good wine is not enough… Thank you for the samples!

http://enoforumwines.com/

Friday, October 9, 2009

A Weekend in Comporta – Alentejo (#2)

After spending all Saturday at the beach, it was time to discover other pleasures from the region. Wine and food.


We had lunch at a small restaurant in the center of the village. The decision making process regarding the food wasn’t complicated, Sea food rice… it was amazing!







Choosing the wine… we wanted something fresh, and not heavy because we wanted to carry on after lunch. The decision was “Vinha do Monte 2007” by Herdade do Peso.






This wine was a very nice surprise. I wanted to try it for a long time… it’s a white wine very characteristic from Alentejo. It´s refreshing, strong citric smell and it has a nice yellow color. It´s a simple wine with some tropical traces. This wine is the result of a selection of typical Alentejo grapes: Arinto, Antão Vaz and Roupeiro.

Antão Vaz is unique from this region of Portugal and it’s the responsible from the strong yellow color of the wine and its tropical traces.

Arinto is well known all over Portugal and gives some complexity to the wine.

Roupeiro is the main white grape and it gives “fruit and youth” to the wines.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A weekend in Comporta - Alentejo (#1)

It’s the beginning of October and I’m heading for a weekend in the sea side, south of Lisbon. The weather is amazingly warm… it’s about 27C (80F). The destiny is Comporta, north of Alentejo.




This small region is well known because of its beautiful beaches (the place where Coca-Cola filmed one of its last commercials) and outstanding wines.





Thursday, October 1, 2009

Lets start from the begining... Why wine? Why Portugal?

As this is my first post, i think i should start by answering the question “why to create a blog about wine?”. Well, the answer is simple… because I love wine and all that surrounds it. As so, a blog will allow me to explore and know more about this exciting topic.
The second reason is: I’m Portuguese and I have it in my blood. What better country to talk about this theme? We have been wine producers for almost 4000 years!! That’s a number…
So, stay tuned if you want to know more about one of the most promising wine making countries in the world.