If you’re like me (and if you’re reading this, you probably are), then you can’t get enough Portuguese wine in your life. Give that, I present you with Round II of this select tasting from Portugal Vineyards.
As the story goes, they’d contacted me back in October of last year to try a selection of wines that they stock. I was happy to go along with this as it offered up a selection of Portuguese wines that I generally don’t have ready access to where I’m based in Spain. This follow-up tasting now focuses a bit more on the lesser-known wines of Portugal.
My favorite of the group was definitely the Ilha Tinta Negra by Diana V. Silva. It’s made on the island of Madeira and as I wrote previously, once I tasted it, I got very excited. While Madeira is an island more well known for their indestructible fortified wines, this unfortified dry wine is something of a new direction for a producer on the island and it was great.
This wasn’t the only treat from the Portuguese isles as the Arinto de Açores Indigenas from the island of Pico was an excellent white wine, based upon Arinto which as far as I can understand is a synonym for Malvasia Fina–although in Mavalsia World, it’s very hard to know anything for certain.
As for other whites, the Alvarinho Monção e Malgaço showed that, like with the previous tasting, if you only think of Vinho Verde as only light, spritzy wines, think again. The winery, Quinta do Regueiro has really made an excellent and quite serious wine that still captures the acid-driven essence of Vinho Verde.
Also of note was the Dona Graça Reserva Branco which was one of the best whites I’ve had from Douro in a long time. It shows great promise for the Viosinho grape variety and is probably the best value from this selection.
Of course there were reds as well including the Dona Graça Reserva Tinto also from Douro that was a great balance of structure and depth. Then there were the Touriga Nacional Reserva and Touriga Nacional Grande Reserva from Dão made by Quinta dos Penassais that were really nimble takes on this classic Portuguese variety.
There was a selection of other wines as well including a classic 20 Year Tawny Port from Bulas. Interestingly, it was the 10 Year White Port that was the highest scoring wine in this group. Also, it was a tremendous value at about 20€ so if you like this style of Port, I can’t recommend enough that you snap it up quickly.
Lastly, there were a couple of sparkling wines. These admittedly didn’t show as well as I’d hoped but one of them, the Flutt Blanc de Noirs was a decent bottle for general consumption and at about 5€, it’s a reasonable price in terms of budget sparklings.
Definitely an interesting and very diverse showing of what Portugal is capable of, especially when it comes to the islands. If you haven’t had a chance to taste many of these wines and regions they come from, I’d really recommend seeking them out.
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As per my Disclosures, I have not nor will I receive any payment or other financial incentive to review these wines.
