In the film, various wine makers share their stories and passion with the viewer. From the Azores to the Minho, Colares to the Alentejo, the variety of techniques and wine styles are as varied as you would expect from such a diverse cross-section of Portuguese wine regions. The touching and, in most cases sad, part of most of these people’s stories is that they feel their way of making wine will not be handed on to another generation, or anyone at all. Surrounding these hardy, mostly aging men’s land, very few vineyards survive. They have either been abandoned or turned into another agricultural pursuit.

Although this film (and some passionate people in Portugal) is trying to keep these traditional wine make practices alive, the people in the movie in the most part, have a very pessimistic view of their passion continuing past their lifetime. I am not sure what to feel after watching the movie. There is something different in all of the wineries shown, something that should be preserved for the Portugal’s heritage as much as for wine lovers. The film aims to show the slow death of these traditions in a hope to raise people’s awareness of them. The value of these wines cannot be measured by a mark out of 100. They are hand-made wines in a world of mass-production; they cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world, so the value of these wines should be more than the few Euros you would pay for them.

I was fortunate enough to taste some of the wines from the producers (who were in attendance at the premier) and although some were an acquired taste I have to say, most were quite good. I know they will probably be different vintage to vintage, but really who cares? They tell a story in every bottle. That is something a modern winery will never be able to do. And I for one hope this film goes a long way in helping the people who are working to keep these traditions alive. The world of wine will be poorer if they do not exist past the current generation.

If you get a chance to see the film – do go along and watch it. But I do not foresee it being in your local cinema complex… You may need to wait until DVD sales are available. Here is a brief trailer for the film. If this film interests you – leave us a comment and I will provide you with more information on how you can see, or buy it soon. Or you can contact the director at his blog Reign of Terroir

By Chris Metcalfe

There are two reasons why Herdade do Portocarro is producing something different. One is the terroir. The winery is located in a unique area on the hilly banks of the Sado river. It is an Alentejo winery, but in the boundaries of the Setubal Peninsular region. To make it even more unique, it has a micro climate different to most wine producing areas in Portugal. They get a lot of sun, but not as much heat in the evenings as other Alentejo or Setubal peninsular wineries, thanks to an almost constant cooling breeze. The soils here are mainly clay and add an earthiness to the wines which is different from the schist or limestone soils of many other wine producing regions.

The second reason they wines are different, is the owner Jose Mota Capitão. I met him recently at the winery and tasted the individual wines from the grapes he grows, that go into his blends and single varietal wines. When tasting the barrel samples of the 2010 vintage wines with him, it was hard not to get infected by his passion for earthy, dry and complex red wines. The son of a doctor in Lisboa, Jose is not a third or fourth generation wine producer like many in Portugal. Jose’s passion for farming brought him to Portocarro, here he started growing rice and tended cattle and after many years of meticulously planning he started with the vineyards. Now he has a capacity for around 60,000 bottles per year; a very small volume by today’s standards. He does not want to produce more than that. In talking with him I found he stands very firmly in producing “hand-made” wines. To produce more than he does now, would mean he would have to automate the production a lot more, this he believes will reduce the quality of his wines, which he is not prepared to sacrifice.

The results are wines made with the intent to show the terroir, Jose’s personal taste and the grapes he grows. These grapes include Alfrocheiro, Aragones (known as Tempranillo in Spain), Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and most interestingly Sangiovese. The Touriga Franca and Sangiovese were the pick of the bunch, so to speak, when tasting them individually.

Herdade do Portocarro currently produces 3 wines:
Herdade do Portocarro – A good way to introduce yourself to the wines from the winery. At around €11 it is very good value.
Cavalo Maluco – Meaning “Crazy Horse” from his childhood fascination with the Native American leader, not the night club in Paris… This is the top blend from the winery. At around €27 it is a great wine for the price.
Anima – This 100% Sangiovese wine is a wonderful representation of the grape and a real surprise for me to see it in Portugal. It would seem too hot in Portugal to produce Sangiovese, but at Portocarro there are excellent conditions for it to grow and make great wine. At €27 it is great value compared to Italian versions of the same quality.

By Chris Metcalfe

As a part of the conference they had some of the best wine critics, including Jancis Robinson, Charles Metcalfe, Neil Martin, among many others, blind tasted many Touriga Nacional single varietal wines to come up with the top 10. And here they are!

Alfaraz Touriga Nacional 2008 – Alentejo
Churchill’s Estates Touriga Nacional 2008 – Douro
Encontro Touriga Nacional 2008 – Bairrada
Herdade São Miguel Touriga Nacional 2008 – Alentejo
Inquieto Touriga Nacional 2008 – Douro
Marques dos Vales Grace 2008 – Algarve
Munda 2008 – Dão
Pedra Cancela Touriga Nacional 2008 – Dão
Quinta da Pedra Alta Touriga Nacional 2007 – Douro
Quinta das Marias 2008 – Dão

It is nice that one from the Alentejo in there. The home of the grape is the Dão region, but it has been made famous by the Douro region using it in Porto as well as making some great single varietals. Other regions have taken it and are producing they own distinctive wines from the grape. As I am a big fan of the wines of the Alentejo, it is great for the region!

Another great thing is that there is an Algarve winery in the top ten. This region is not often thought of as a wine producing area. It is more thought of as a holiday destination, but there are great areas to grow and produce wine there. I hope there are more wineries coming up there and the existing ones get more recognition soon.

I have been to similar events before, however this one had something different about it. The interaction between the producers and tasters was the highlight of the evening for me. The producers were out in front of their wines, rather than standing behind a stall or table as you find in most events. Wine producers are a passionate bunch, especially when they get to talk about their wines, so this set up allowed them to get out among the people and their enthusiasm was fantastic all evening. I managed to talk with many of the producers and for most of the evening they seemed to be having as good a time than I was.

As for the wines, there were too many very good ones to name them all. The whites I enjoyed were the Quinta dos Cozinheiros 100% Fernão Pires, the Vale d’Algares 2009 Viognier and surprisingly there was a 2004 Chardonnay from Mark Stephen Schultz which I wasn’t expecting to like – but I did. As for the reds; the 2009 Rubrica from Luis Duarte, the Anima L7 with 100% Sangiovese from Herdade do Portocarro and the Paulo Laureano 2007 Reserva were all very different and excellent wines.

For this post however, I would like to focus on a wine that was not for sale at the Adegga Wine Market, but I was lucky enough to get a small taste of! So, this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the 2008 Petit Verdot from Cortes de Cima. Why was it not on sale I hear you ask! Well they have only made 800 bottles of it. The Petit Verdot grape itself is becoming more commonly grown in Portugal, particularly in the hot and dry Alentejo region. It’s usually found in blends in Bordeaux, (mainly in the Medoc) and here in Portugal, too, it is usually used for blending. I have tasted one or two 100% Petit Verdot’s from Australia, but this is the first from Portugal for me – and it is interesting. Lots of red fruit and a touch of mint in the aroma, with a fresher fruit in the taste mix with some toasty oak. The finish is fresher with some good acid there. It would be great with roasted meats with the acid cutting through the fats at the end. So it is perfect for this time of year when Christmas dinners are approaching. For around €30 it is good value, especially if you want something new and different to try. They do sell it online from their web site, but check where they can send it to. If you are looking for it be quick – they are selling out quickly.

It was a tough choice to select a wine out so many good ones for this week. I hope to get to some of the wineries who were represented at the event in future. If so, I will be sure to share more experiences with you.

Most importantly, thanks to Andre and the Adegga team for putting on the event. I think it was a great success. I had a very good time, met some very nice people and had some great discussions with the producers. I look forward to the event next year already.

By Chris Metcalfe

I took a couple from California to visit some wineries in Portugal recently. Apart from being knowledgeable about wine, they were also quite outspoken about the nature of the seemingly conservative nature of their homeland. After enjoying a couple of glasses of wine over lunch in Èvora and visiting a couple of wineries, the discussion came up on the drive back to Lisboa about having a glass of wine at lunch in the USA. As the husband was an airline pilot, a glass of wine or two is probably not advisable for him – and his passengers. However the wife, who worked in an office based job, said it would be out of the question. This she explained was because her colleagues were quite conservative and she would be looked down on if she did partake in some wine with lunch.

In southern Europe a glass or two of wine is common at lunch. One because lunch is usually the main meal of the day, but more importantly it is a part of the culture. Being from Australia myself, I can relate to the idea that drinking wine at lunch could make you be considered decadent at least, or a raging alcoholic at worse. I have also spent a lot of time in the north of Europe; here too it is not the done thing unless it is a special occasion. This got me thinking… What evil force is at work that makes something that is perfectly natural in one part of the world be frowned upon in many other parts of the world?

Let’s start with the obvious – they have made wine in the south of Europe for thousands of years. This gives them a pretty good head start on the rest of the world. It is also common here to have a long lunch, this gives them time to enjoy a glass or two of wine and be able to digest everything by the time they return to their place of work. These are probably the two main differences in lifestyle from southern Europe and the rest of the world. In the north of Europe, the USA and Australia (and as I would guess many other places in the world) it is encouraged to have a quick lunch and get back to work as soon as you can to continue your job you are meant to love.

Soon the discussion turned to what would need to happen for the perception of taking your time to enjoy a longer lunch with a glass of wine as unacceptable to change. According to the couple, there are quite conservative views when it comes to your working life in the USA. This would automatically preclude the idea of an enjoyable lunch, as you would have with your friends on a weekend, being acceptable during the week. From my working experience in Australia and The Netherlands, where I think people are not as conservative, it is still not the done thing. But what would need to change?

For one – the time people work. For people who are meant to love their job so much, the majority are pretty keen to get out of there when the clock ticks over to their designated time to leave. So for them to stay another hour or two to take a longer lunch may be difficult, but definitely not an insurmountable obstacle. More importantly the perception that if someone has wine at lunch, they are not necessarily getting drunk. The drinking culture in many countries revolves around getting drunk. In the south of Europe, it mainly revolves around the enjoyment of food. This may be a hard transition, but I would argue, a needed transition for the cultures of northern Europe, USA and Australia (and probably many other countries).

I think it is a battle between good and evil. Where the good is the idea that “Bob from the office” is a normal guy because he has a glass of wine at lunch as well as achieving everything at work he is expected to in his job. And the evil is the idea that “Bob from the office” is lazy/inefficient/a poor worker/an alcoholic if he has a glass or two of wine at lunch, despite any work related results. Ironically in the same culture where “Bob from the office” is considered bad for having a glass of wine with lunch, he is considered a great guy if he has 10 beers and a few shots on a Friday night after work and entertains everyone with his drunken banter.

In the end, the discussion in the car finished with an agreement. We hoped the next generation will be able to choose if they would like wine during lunch or not, without any assumptions being made about them. This was because the next generation will be more globally enlightened, as well as the current generation becoming more aware of wine. The more people know about wine, the more they are able to accept it as an accompaniment to a meal than previous generations.

To help this, this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is not 1 but 2 wines! They are both from the last winery we visited on the day, Encosta de Estremoz. The Prodigo and Enjeitado from are two very different wines. The meaning of Prodigo is the prodigal son and Enjeitado the “black sheep” son. So in short good son – bad son… This however, is where the good vs. evil idea stops. They are both good wines. What they do is give the consumer an idea of two different styles of red wine. The Prodigo is smooth and elegant. Made from a blend of Touriga Nacional and Alicante Bouschet, it has aromas of sweet strawberry, fennel tops, truffle and mint. It has the tastes of strawberry jam, dried fruit, vanilla and bit of tar. It is juicy in the mouth with a long finish. It would go well with lighter brighter meals. The Enjeitado is a far more aggressive wine made of a blend of Alicante Bouschet and Trincadeira. It has a plum and spice aromas, with more stewed plum, pepper and caramely-chocolate when tasting. It is chewy in the mouth with a dry, tannin driven character. It would go well with heavier more robust meals.

These are two wines that are designed to allow people to find what suits their pallet. In doing this it will allow people to discover and look for similar wines in the future. This simple piece of wine making and labeling may seem a bit gimmicky, but I hope it will help people find what they like in not only Portuguese wines, but in wine in general. In doing so, taking us a few steps forward in accepting that some wine with your lunch is not evil.

If you see them in the wine shop give them both a try and see what you prefer. It is a great way to understand what characteristics different Portuguese grapes bring to the wines, as well as a great way of better understanding you own pallet.

By Chris Metcalfe – with thanks to Sharon and Brian

I have seen people out in the vineyards collecting grapes before. Apart from my admiration for these people’s endurance during the hot September (March in Australia usually) days, it isn’t that interesting to look at really. What excited me about this particular opportunity was the use of a harvesting machine that would be picking during the night. This I had not seen before and would make for a great spectacle from the tasting come dinning room.

After lunch in Evora and a quick tasting at the nearby João Portugal Ramos, it was time to check into a hotel and then head up to Qunita da Esperança. On arriving the sun was just starting to set, so the light over the vineyard was magical. Our host hurried up to us as we were poking around the vines to announce the harvesting machine had broken down earlier in the day. We would however, go ahead with dinner and tasting regardless. Due to the machine being broken it freed up the time of the resident enologist, Joana Silva Lopes. She was very kind to give us her time to discuss the wines. When she heard that my father and I were from Australia, she was very excited because she had just returned from a few months observing and working with the wine makers at Best’s winery in Western Victoria. A winery my father visits quite often. So we bored the other guests with tales of Australian wines for a while…

The use of new world wine making techniques combined with the centuries of traditional wine making along with the native grapes are the big features of Portuguese wines. It gives them an individual stamp on their wines that very few other countries can offer. This combined with their great value makes them appealing to me as a consumer, and very interesting to talk about as a writer.

So with glass in hand and sun disappearing on behind the hills it was time to taste. The white to start with was the Terras de Estremoz. A fresh, citrusy wine; great with light seafood or fish meals. Then the reds. With some nice marketing the next two reds were named Prodigo and Enjeitado. Meaning good son and bad son. It is a very interesting way to get to know the different types of red wines from Portugal. The Prodigo is a lighter, more delicate wine; whereas the Enjeitado is a bigger angrier wine, that could do with a lay down for a couple of years. They do represent two very distinct tastes of Portuguese reds and well worth trying them out for yourself if you can find them.

Then it was inside for some food. Tradition Alentejano soup was to start, served with the Quinta da Esperança red. The wine by itself didn’t really stand up to the Enjeitado, but with the food it went down quite well. Next up was pork and potatoes, what else are you going to have in this part of the world? It was very good and a few servings later, along with another glass of red, it was almost time to loosen one’s belt a notch or two… Thankfully, the highlight of evening was opened. The 2003 Encostras de Estremoz Reserva. I have had this wine a few times before, but I was interested in what my dad made of it. He found it, along with most of the wines we tried in Portugal, difficult to compare. Well it only makes sense given the majority of wines we had were blends of grape varieties he had never heard of before. Despite the lack of a yard-stick to measure the wine against, he agreed it was good. That was all I got out of him, as he went in search of a re-fill…

Despite the lack of entertainment from a large motor vehicle going up and down the vines, it was a very enjoyable evening. The wine, as it was always going to be, was the highlight of the evening, followed very closely by the explanations given by Joana and the food. I hope they do it again next year, if you are in the neighborhood then look out for it. Even without a harvester it is a fabulous evening!

The main reason behind not drinking red wine is not because I couldn’t have a glass or two with a bit of heat. It has more to do with taste buds not being in the mood for heavier food, which I tend to enjoy a glass or two of red wine with. As this is all about the experience of enjoying wine, there is no point in forcing anything because it will lessen the experience. Last week though, the weather cooled enough for something a bit meatier. I also had my eye on a wine I had wanted to try for a while.

So this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the 2005 Esporão Trincadiera. The Esporão winery is a great place to visit. The impressive tower rising out of the vines is always a nice sight to see no matter how many times you have visited. We visit this winery on our trips out to the Alentejo and it is always leaves an impression. They also have archeological sites within the property, with finds dating back to pre-Roman times. They also support local artists. The labels on their Reserva and Private Collection wines are designed by artists from Portugal.

Back to the wine… Usually, as with many of Portugal’s native grapes and wine making traditions, Tricadeira is blended with other grapes for the end product. At Esporão for example, they use it in their Resverva wine, along with Aragonês , Cabernet Sauvignon and Alicante Bouschet. In combination with these grapes the end product is balance and it is always a lot of fun getting your nose and mouth around where the different grapes are adding to the wine. On its own though, Trincadeira make a wine with a deep color, with plum, spice and some vanilla aromas. With all that going on it gives you a bit of a fright about how big it will be. At 14.5% alcohol it has a fair punch to it. On tasting it however, it is a less scary with some berry flavor as well as the plum and some spice to it and some good dryness to finish.

This wine goes well with red meat, or duck with a heavy sauce. The roundness of the flavors come alive with food, making it even more enjoyable with the particular fruit and spice it has. It may be a new grape to many people, but I encourage you to give it a try and see what you think. It’s different to many of the French grape varieties that seem to dominate the shelves outside of Southern Europe, so if you come across this with, give it a try and see what you think!

I have been asked by a few people what I would compare Touriga Nacional wines to. That is a tricky one. It is a native grape to Portugal, and with most of the natives here, it has its own character which make the wines from Portugal so interesting. It isn’t quite as big and heavy as a Shiraz/Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon; however it has more depth to it than a Tempranillo or Pinot Noir. As I said it is tricky comparing it to more widely planted grapes. My advice is to give one a try and find out for yourself. While you are at the wine shop, pick a blended Portuguese wine as well – this should give you a good taste of Portugal.

So this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the 2006 Herdade das Servas Touriga Nacional. Traditionally most of the production of this grape is in the Douro and Dão regions of Portugal, however more and more of it is being planted in other regions, including the Alentejo where Herdade das Servas is near the town of Estremoz. This wine has a deep purple color and an aroma of violet flowers and intense red berries. Tasting the wine gives you darker berry flavors which lead to the dry but rounded tannins and some good spice. The finish is long with a bit of a chocolaty taste. It has spent at least 12 months in mainly French oak, however it doesn’t have an overpowering oaky flavor. It would go well with grilled pork or beef, but you need to have some herbs and spices with it to bring out some of the notes in the wine.

This wine will develop well with age, so in 5 to 10 years it will have even more complexity and be a lot smoother. As I said above you need to experience the wines made from this varietal for yourself to make your own mind up about it. On your next visit to the wine shop see if you can find a single varietal Touriga Nacional and give it a try. I am sure you will be impressed. Or even better, if you come to Portugal, get in contact with us and we can take you out to some of the vineyards and you can experience some of the best for yourself.