Wine a Day

Last week I was in the Alentejo and visited Quinta da Esperança. I had visited them before, but just for a quick tasting many years ago. In the shadow of the hilltop town of Estremoz, the views from their tasting room are quite spectacular. The hills and baked landscape at this time of year are wonderful from the air-conditioned comfort of a tasting room. The name Estremoz is a good representation of the weather in the area, with very hot summers and dipping well below zero in the winters. Wandering around the vineyard – briefly, mainly due to the temperature being well over 40°C – you could see many plump grapes almost ready for harvest. In the coming weeks the tranquil setting will come alive with activity as the harvest begins.

Although some wineries will be too busy with harvest to look after visitors, it is the best time to visit the wineries and see all the action taking place. From picking and pressing to filtering and fermenting, this is when the action is when you are at a winery. I am very much looking forward to be out and about at the wineries again during harvest, and I hope to capture that in one of my future blogs.

For this blog however, I am going to concentrate on one wine I was able to taste, buy and re-taste at home recently. So this week’s Wine Experience of the week is the 2007 Red Reserva from Encostas de Estremoz (slopes of Estremoz), which is on most of the bottles from Quinta da Esperança (farm of Hope).

Like many wineries in Portugal, they use many “new world” wine making techniques alongside the traditional Portuguese traditions. For this particular wine, it enhances the aromas and taste to make it a very unique experience to enjoy. This is a very dark colored wine with 14.5% on the label so not for the timid. The big flavors of Alicante Bouschet and the elegance of the Touriga Nacional grapes are complimented by the softer Touriga Franca grape. All these grapes are synonymous with Port production further north in Portugal. Here they have been blended to make a great table wine. The aromas are of strong blackberry and raspberry fruit along with some lavender and a hint of chocolate. The initial big bold fruitiness at the beginning softens as it goes down and the finish is tongue-suckingly good.

It is not a wine you would sit down and drink on its own, especially on a warm summer day, but with something like a lamb tagine, or a good meaty stew it is perfect. If you are lucky to have any left after the meal, it is also nice with some good quality cheese. So if you see this wine in the shop, give it a try.