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Our June Tongham Taster’s evening took us to a country that
is ignored and forgotten by so many wine drinkers - Portugal. Whilst still remembered for its fortified
wines, its other wines, with the exception of, dare I say it, Mateus Rosé
are little known. Ian and Kathryn were
our excellent hosts and they took the easy but ultimately winning option of
getting all of their six wines via The Wine Society’s “The Portugal Exploration
Case”. Our only disappointment was not
trying one of Cliff Richard’s wines – a rousing chorus of “we’re all going on a
summer holiday” or “the young ones” would have really made the evening!
As none of us know very much about Portuguese wines we
didn’t actually taste the wines blind, it would have made no difference to our
marks or comments. Instead Kathryn
provided us with tasting notes on all six wines plus a wine from the
aforementioned Senhor Richard. We just
had to guess which of the tasting notes went with each wine; a much more
difficult task than it might sound when they are filled with typical wine
critic verbosity such as “a hint of Burgundian style struck match” or
“constrained and buttressed by the tight apple”.
Unusually we were marking the wines out of ten using a
different system than usual and which developed slightly over the evening and
which was not used consistently around the tasting table. Scores below are in the order John E,
Kathryn, Ian, Jill, John S, Andy, Clive, Jane, Sarah and Chris. The wines are presented in our descending
order of preference with the food we served with them:
1. Campolargo, Alvelhao, Beiras, 2011, Potuguese red wine,
The Wine Society, £10.95.
This was our postcard from Portugal and indeed a postcard,
most unusually, forms the label. This
wine is from the Bairrada region of Northern Portugal. But is different from
the robust reds that traditionally come from this area. It was an easy winner with our judging panel
despite initial comments such as wafts of toilet cleaner or menthol –not
something I got at all, I have to say.
Perhaps they meant fresh summer flowers and hay meadows; sounds much
better doesn’t it. We found it light to
medium bodied , slightly sweeter than the other reds but very nice taste and
some complexity. Four of our panel
voted it the top wine of the evening and another five had it in their top
three. Scores were 9,7,8,9,7,6.5,8,7,10
and 7.25. A pleasant summer red that
could be good on its own.
This blended wine from inland Southern Portugal received top
votes from two of our judges and another five had it in their top three
wines. It had a citrus, oak and
minerality and tasted relatively similar to some oaked Sancerres I had tasted
recently. We found it perhaps lacked a
little aftertaste although the tasting notes from The Wine Society suggested
the opposite. Score were
7.5,8,9,7.5,6,7,9,7,9 and 7.5 This is a
wine for those who don’t mind a little oak in their wines as long as it is balanced
by fruit and minerality.
3. Valle Pradhinhos, Branco, Transmontano 2011, Portuguese white wine, The Wine Society,
Another white came next and many thought it was better than
the one above but quite a few didn’t like this wine at all and hence the
placings. This wine had a big citrus
nose, perhaps reminiscent of grapefruit and again good minerality with perhaps
some oak and saltiness. Another wine that reminded me of Sancerre although it
is a blended wine and comes from the Upper Douro area of Northern Portugal. We tried this wine with a lovely prawn pasta
dish and the dish improved the wine.
Scores were 6.5+,8.5,7,9.5,7,5,8,9,5 and 8. A lovely wine to have with your barbequed fish
this summer.
4. Alfrocheiro, Grande Escolha, Tejo 2008, Portuguese red
wine, The Wine Society, £14.95
This wine had that big New World red smell and looked lovely
in the glass. We found brambles and
cherries in its fruit flavours and a good level of acidity. One person thought this their favourite wine
of the evening and another six had it in their top three. Scores were 8-,7,8,8,7,6,8,9,7.5, and 6. The acidity would make this a good match to
slow roasted pork belly.
This was the first wine we tasted and it made a great start
to the evening. I thought it tasted like some Italian whites only better.
It was perhaps a bit flat tasting and thus came towards the bottom of
our three good whites. We had this with
some Olive Oil Tortas from Waitrose and green grapes and they were an excellent
wine accompaniment. Scores were
6.5-,7,6,7,6.5,6,8,5,6 and 6.5. If you like
the white wines of Italy or Spain, give this one from Portugal a try.
6. Porta Velha, Tras-os-Montes 2010, Portuguese red wine,
The Wine Society, £7.50
Although this wine came in last place and was the only wine
that nobody put in their top three, it was probably the best sixth place wine
we have tasted over the last three years of Tongham Tasters. Perhaps too soft it was a little flat and
uncomplicated. However, it did have a
nice raspberry or strawberry aroma and some acidity to match with food. We found it went well with figs. Scores were 7-,7,6,6,5,5,8,5,7 and 4.5. A Portuguese alternative to a joven Rioja as
it is made largely with Tempranilla to drink young.
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| Our food menu for the evening |
Overall this proved to be a very consistent bunch of wines
and absolutely not a dud amongst them.
However, perhaps no really amazing star either.
The food was gorgeous and novel.
A great evening – congratulations and thanks to our hosts Ian and
Kathryn. Obviously, we all ought to be
adding Portuguese wines to our shopping list – join the Wine Society or visit a
good quality wine specialist or pop along to your local Waitrose. An observation from some of us was that the labels didn't help sell this wine to foreigners like us who are not experts in Portuguese wine.
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| Tortas and green grapes - a great combination with a Portuguese white |
Well done to Clive who did spectacularly well compared with
the rest of us in matching the wines with the Wine Society descriptions – he
obviously has a great palate.
Thanks to Kathryn for the delicious food that accompanied the wines.
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| Our Portuguese prawn pasta dish |
Thanks to Kathryn for the delicious food that accompanied the wines.
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| Merriment accompanied the first white |
Next month we end our exile in Farnborough and return to our
roots in Tongham. Steve will be
presenting us six wines from the Languedoc region of France on Friday July 5th
at 8pm in The Street, Tongham. Don’t
forget that we welcome old and new comers equally so if you would like to join
us, click on Wine Circle to find out more details.
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| An aperitif before the main tasting |
August will be one of the special evenings where we blow the
budget and use up some of our kitty. It
will be an evening of older and more expensive wines than normal. So our regular tasting team need to put
Friday August 9th in their diaries.
The theme will be Reserva and Gran Reserva Riojas. Included will be a mini vertical of three
wines from the eighties and nineties.
This will be a mainly red evening and will be accompanied by traditional
Rioja accompaniments like roast lamb, Manchego cheese, Serrano ham, chestnut
soup and mushrooms. If it’s a warm
summers day, which is unlikely in England, we will try to lighten up some of
those ingredients. This evening will be
hosted by John and Jane in Grange Road, Tongham.
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| Many thanks to our hosts |
At our next evening we will need to plan September through
December, so team come up with some ideas.
In October it will be our third birthday as a wine tasting group.
As usual thanks to Clive for most of the photos.
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| We ended with Portuguese custard tarts - delicious! |
As usual thanks to Clive for most of the photos.
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