The place for all things wine, focused on serious wine discussions.

WTN: Two smashing Portuguese table wines

Moderators: Jenise, Robin Garr, David M. Bueker

no avatar
User

Saina

Rank

Musaroholic

Posts

3976

Joined

Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:07 pm

Location

Helsinki, Finland

WTN: Two smashing Portuguese table wines

by Saina » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:39 pm

A wineanorak friend of mine is leaving soon to tour Syria and Lebanon with a possible side trip to Petra. My obvious choice for the evening would of course have been Musar, but as all my Musars are too young to be drunk we opted for my friends other favourite country, Portugal. This seems to be an up and coming winery (which isn't?) which makes wines mostly from native grapes but with some Syrah grown also. The Ancestral is a blend of some native grapes (I've no idea which ones) and is judiciously oaked and a very fine wine indeed. The Fernão Pires is an unoaked white from an indigenous grape that doesn't seem to be much available as a varietal wine. I wonder why...this really appealed to me as an Albariño fan. Pinhal da Torre make some other, IMO less successful wines which are also more expensive. Their Syrah has a cult following and is massively oaked and spoofulated. Their Touriga-Syrah is also much oaked but is a nice savoury wine otherwise. It certainly is a winery to seek out, especially these two wines and their sumptous dessert made from FP.

  • 2001 Pinhal da Torre Vinho Regional Ribatejano Ancestral - Portugal, Ribatejano, Vinho Regional Ribatejano (3/23/2006)
    Dark. Red berry scented, sweet but not jammy, earthy, a touch oaky but not overdone, screams Portugal at you. The palate is big but very savoury, fine fruit, fine earthyness, highish tannins and lots of almost Musar-like acidity. Smashing stuff! Not at all spoofulated like their Syrah and Touriga-Syrah.
  • 2004 Quinta do Alqueve (Pinhal da Torre) Vinho Regional Ribatejano Fernão Pires - Portugal, Ribatejano, Vinho Regional Ribatejano (3/23/2006)
    A rather deep yellow. The nose is rather strange: salt/sea breeze, pine kernels, lots of minerals, white flowers and unripe mango. The palate has sweeter fruit than evident from the nose, with lovely ripe and almost juicy acidity, lots of minerals and a touch of salt. Great stuff and not at all like Retsina despite the whiff of pine kernel. (Unoaked, gladly.)

Posted from CellarTracker
no avatar
User

Bill Buitenhuys

Rank

Wine guru

Posts

1563

Joined

Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:47 pm

Location

Phoenix metro

Re: TNs: Two smashing Portuguese table wines

by Bill Buitenhuys » Thu Mar 23, 2006 8:34 pm

Good stuff, Otto. I havent had many non-fortified Portuguese wines but it's on the short list of areas I want to explore soon.
no avatar
User

Bob Parsons Alberta

Rank

aka Doris

Posts

10773

Joined

Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:09 pm

Re: TNs: Two smashing Portuguese table wines

by Bob Parsons Alberta » Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:15 am

Bill Buitenhuys wrote:Good stuff, Otto. I havent had many non-fortified Portuguese wines but it's on the short list of areas I want to explore soon.


Thats good to hear Bill. Check out wineanorak for all the news as well as the wine doctor.

Lesson #1 Bill.

How do we put in the "click here" thingy with reference to a website? i.e. http://www.wineanorak.com.

Here we go again. Thanks for the email by the way! Curling, check out the third on the USA team. I love freckles Bill, wherever they are &^%^%$#!!
no avatar
User

Robin Garr

Rank

Forum Janitor

Posts

21612

Joined

Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:44 pm

Location

Louisville, KY

Re: TNs: Two smashing Portuguese table wines

by Robin Garr » Fri Mar 24, 2006 2:01 am

Bob Parsons Alberta. wrote:How do we put in the "click here" thingy with reference to a website? i.e. http://www.wineanorak.com


You just did it, Bob! Put in a web address including the www. (the http:// bit is optional), and the system automagically makes it a hotlink. Nothing could be easier!
no avatar
User

Peter May

Rank

Pinotage Advocate

Posts

3798

Joined

Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:24 am

Location

Snorbens, England

Re: TNs: Two smashing Portuguese table wines

by Peter May » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:05 am

Otto Nieminen wrote: The Fernão Pires is an unoaked white from an indigenous grape that doesn't seem to be much available as a varietal wine. I wonder why...this really appealed to me as an Albariño fan.


Agree with you about Fernão Pires - but we are seeing it more in UK supermarkets now. Also it is made as a varietal at least one winery in South Africa.
no avatar
User

Roy Hersh

Rank

Wine geek

Posts

95

Joined

Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:12 pm

Location

Sammamish, WA

Re: TNs: Two smashing Portuguese table wines

by Roy Hersh » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:09 pm

There will be many new red wines that are popular in Portugal that never make it to the US and UK markets. They will be emerging more and more as Portugal's reliability as a wine producing country become apparent to the wine consumers around the world.

By the way, I just had a 1995 Musar last weekend (4th bottle of it) and it was one of the top wines of the night, alongside some very stiff competition. I love older bottlings too, but this was drinking beautifully now.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: AhrefsBot and 1 guest

Powered by phpBB ® | phpBB3 Style by KomiDesign