News
Portugal visit March 2010
It's too long since my last trip to Portugal. We've seen our Portuguese suppliers frequently over the last 12 months in London, so I was overdue to repay the favour. if only to deliver in person Manuel Campilho's annual marmalade allocation. I travelled alone to Lisbon and visited Lagoalva on Wednesday, then met up with friend and client and straight-talking super taster Noel Young for Thursday and Friday. Very useful to have an extra palate to discuss with and with Noel's "help" I found myself more enthused than ever about the quality of the oak fermented whites.
Diogo and his assistant winemaker Pedro showed me pretty well the whole range from Lagoalva. The new labelling for the red and white (and rose) wines is modern and striking whilst remaining true to the estate's proud aristocratic heritage. The family crest is seen on the bottom right of the label, but the overall impression is balanced and appealing.
2009 has been a great harvest for whites. Acidity levels are a little higher than normal, but everywhere the wines have a perfume and energy that takes them a stage further towards high quality. It's only 4 years since we were regularly lamenting how poor white wines from Portugal generally were. No longer! There are wines in the range which still do not convince me, and this is fine as there is a large range and we could never buy everything, but an Alfrocheiro Syrah blend was pure, dry and fresh and concentrated and worked well with food. The Alfrocheiro - much missed since 2007 was not bottled and 2006 ran out ages ago - is well on the way to bottling. I watched Pedro clamber over sacks of potatoes to find the sample from the barrels at the end of the cold room. I still feel this is a wine which needs less rather than more oak. TOP RECOMMENDATION; Quinta da Lagoalva Branco 2009 Talhao 1 (aromatic crisp dry blend of Arinto, Fernao Pires, Verdellho and a little Sauvignon
After Lagoalva, I picked up Noel from the airport and then it was a spin back south to Bairrada for a lunch of leitao. The poor folk of Bairrada surely get fed up of eating young suckling pig, even if their conscience does not prick them, but for occasional visitors this is obligatory. It's a unique and fabulous combination of flavour and texture. We visited a small local restaurant with Filipa Pato for a tasting of her new Bossa 2009 - fragrant, grapey, faintly muscat-like, but dry and clean. We sold a good quantity of 2008 and this will be even better. We might even see it in screw cap when the second bottling arrives!
Sparkling rose (her 3Bs - Bairrada, Bical, Baga ) is obligatory with leitao, but the Silex 2008 is a brilliant wine. It was recently much lauded (by Tim Atkin, Anthony Rose, Jamie Goode, to name but three) at the London "50 Great Portuguese Wine Tasting", chosen this year by Sarah Ahmed. It has all the richness, perfume and weight of a really fine wine, but it has that fine - I want to say thin - texture of a really clean cool wine. There is no bake here, just superb purity, concentration and length. We will have almost 15% of the 2,000 bottles produced (from a 1 ha vineyard).
There is an interesting Baga in the cellar too from the regular Calcario vineyard, but another 10 yr old Baga vineyard too. A new red wine:Bossa tinto 2008. This is a fruiter, lighter version to replace Ensaios Tinto. mostly baga with some jaen and alfrocheiro. cool temperature fermentation. fruity , sappy, smooth red fruit. the acceptable face of simple baga
TOP RECOMMENDATION Silex 2008 (85% Touriga Nacional, )
Dao Sul's Quinta do Encontro, their eye-cathcing new circular hilltop winery is near to Filipa, so we called in their on our way to Oporto. Spotless, squeaky clean, one can barely imagine wine was made here, but this is one of several showpiece wineries in the area. Everything is circular, and all access is by ramp; there are no steps. As you spiral down into the cellar, lights illuminate the scene automatically, and there at the bottom is Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his crew of villains planning for world domination.
As they do in many aspects of wine, Dao Sul are taking a great lead in promotting wine tourism, and each of their wineries is equipped with restaurant, visitor facilites and shop. We tasted some uninspiring simple wines , but the Grande Encontro 2006 is a good successor to the 2005, and the star was the Encontro Baga., a really fine, spicy, nicely oaked red, with the dry red fruit of the Baga, and a really fine texture
TOP RECOMMENDATION Encontro Baga 2005
There have been a lot of changes since my last visit to Dao Sul. Carlos Lucas' original partner Casimiro, has left the company to set up his own business, taking one or two members of Dao Sul with him, but what remains seems to be a relaxed, confident enthusiastic young team, and as hard working as they ever were. Carlos Lucas was my first contact with Dao Sul on the MW trip I helped set up in 2000 so we are almost 10 years into our partnership. Dao Sul is the largest of all the companies we work with , but with Carlos I feel comfortable, and confident that we can continue to develop business together. In last year's hard times, the great value wines they produced did really well for Clark Foyster Wines, and we saw some big increases in some lines . This year, the early taste of their whites is very promising: Cabriz white 2009 is delightful, and much more suited, I think, to the UK market than the comparable wine from Encontro. But the barrel fermented whites are dramatically improved too. There has always been a problem, it seems to me , in fermenting whites in oak , especially aromatic grapes from Dao and Bairrada which have quite high acidity. But the fusion seems much more harmonious in wines like Encontro1 from Bairrada, and the Casa de Santar Reserva, so I think it is time for us to make a modest experiment with these wines. It is a most dynamic company and the range of new wines and the experiments undertaken are enormously impressive. Cabriz red Dao is a 2+ million bottle brand now, and yet the small batches of single vineyards from Tecedeiras and other small producers in Douro receive the artisanal treatment a small vineyard of old vines would deserve from any producer.
I can conclude, to, that Dao Sul's Rio Sol project is still very much alive and kicking in Brazil. The trials and challenges have been greater, I sense, than were ever expected at the beginning. But with 5 years of work, significant changes to vineyards, canopy training and wine making, we have a red and white from the recent months which will make for very pleasant drinking over the next few months. We have even a listing of the red with Wetherspoons for the duration of the World Cup!