The meeting this month was slightly depleted and there were only 6 of us to enjoy an outdoor tasting on what was one the best summer days in the year so far. The theme this meeting was to try something different from what we have had to date and we tasted a couple of red wines from Portugal. The following is an extract from the Waitrose web site on Portuguese wine :-
“In a world where international grape varieties like Chardonnay dominate; Portugal stands out from the crowd by growing mainly local grape varieties. Port and Madeira have been exported to the UK for many centuries but now it’s time to discover some of Portugal’s best-kept secrets – their up-and-coming red and white wines.
The last 20 years, since Portugal joined the EU, has seen a huge transformation. Methods and machinery have been brought up to modern standards, with stainless steel fermentation tanks now sitting alongside the traditional ‘lagars’ where the grapes were trodden by foot. Thankfully the native grape varieties have been retained, giving Portuguese wine a true identity.
Portuguese wine really has taken a step up, providing some superb wines that are excellent value.”
The wines we tasted were a Periquita 2005 Terras do Sado a medium (B) bodied wine which was blend of Castellao, Aragonez and Trincadeira grapes. The group gave this an average score of 6.75. Generally well liked although opinions differed somewhat regarding the nose, from clean and fruity, to earthy and a very descriptive “downwind from a tar factory”
The second wine was an Altano 2005 Douro, a medium bodied wine (C), made from traditional port wine grape varieties. Again well liked but with different opinions. Very soft and smooth for some but the opposite for others. The average score was 6.9. Both wines are available from Waitrose at £4.99 and £5.49 respectively.
The next meeting will be at Ray and June’s on the 26th August, no meeting in September and the following meeting will be at Pat and Brian’s, October 28th, both at 2:00 pm
No comments:
Post a Comment