Wine a Day

Back to Portugal this week; the Alentejo region to be precise. The rolling plains of this region are spectacular, especially in the spring time. Wild flowers cover the fields, the sun is warm and there vines are budding. This is paradise for those who love their food, wine and stunning vistas.

During my last trip to this region I stopped off at the small town of Borba. There is nothing remarkable about the town. A main street with the usual shops, cafes and one or two restaurants is all you will find. In the surrounding hills and plains of this town however, there are many vineyards. The many hours of sunshine they have here creates perfect conditions for the native grapes of the region. It also gives you an interesting condition known as driver’s arm. This condition makes your left arm, close to the driver’s side window, far more suntanned than your other arm. There is no know cure for this condition when you are in search of wine. You can only hope to curb your excitement before you set off wine hunting and remember to put some sun cream on.

Despite by disproportionaley brown left forearm, I discovered many of the vineyards in this small area of the Alentejo contribute to a cooperative. Their grapes are bought by a central organisation. The grapes are assessed, sorted and selected to go into many different wines with different branding, pricing and many different levels of quality. Cooperatives are common in many countries with a varying degree of success. The cooperative I found in Borba seems to have got a good thing going on.

This week’s Wine of the Week is the 2002 Garrafeira from Adega Cooperativa de Borba. The term “garrafeira” is probably most well known to be on the labels of Port wines. The term is used on labels when the vintage was so good; they used grapes from a single vintage’s harvest to go into the wines. For this table wine, the same process and term has been used. For this vintage, they were able to be extremely selective with the grapes they used in the hope of producing a wine of extra quality. Having finished off a bottle of this wine recently, I can assure everyone they have succeeded! I enjoyed very much this wine with some great food and friends.

To get this quality, the 2002 Garrafeira from Adega de Borba has spent a longer time in French oak than they would usually spend for a “regular” vintage; 18 months in this case. It is also matured in the bottle for another 2 years before being released. A blend of Trincadeira, Aregones and Alecante Bouschet grapes, it has aromas of cooked fruit and spices to give you an idea of the taste to come. Rather than overpowering richness, that the nose suggests, there is a smooth taste berry fruit and spice. The elegant taste is elongated through to the finish of delicate dried fruits. At 13% it is a surprisingly light wine for this region, but this is all the better for eating with!

I decided on this wine out for a roast lamb dinner. It matched the gamey flavors of the lamb with rich gravy very well. I could also see it matching many rich vegetarian dishes. At around €20 it needs to compete with many well known, good quality wines. I think it does this very well. If you can get your hands on a bottle, I am sure you will be equally impressed.