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

Further up the road is Lilliput Winery, about eight kilometres from Rutherglen. Typically it is a small winery in a small settlement. The German winemakers their claim their wines are biodiverse. I expected a reisling and a gewürztraminer but got neither… But they did do a shiraz and a cabernet that were very rich and fruity and I didn’t get a headache from either.

Even further up the road is Larks Hill. As with Lilliput, we chanced upon this winery located a few kilometers north of Bungerong on the road from Queanbeyan to Batman’s Bay. It is certified bio-dynamic and they stick to the gospel of Steiner with mulching, planting at the full moon, building stone monument, sacrificing virgins, the lot. The don’t do a gewürztraminer, but they do the first gruner viltliner in Australia. The story goes that importing the vines into Australia is prohibited, but a man from Tasmania had some and gave them to Larks Hill as he was getting on in years and wanted the vines to have a good home. The winemaker from Larks Hill flew to Tassie, got the seedlings and flew back with them first class. The wine is great going by the second vintage, the 2010. It is reisling like but not as austere and is quite fruit driven. Their pinot and shiraz were superb – rich and intense, long and savoury – real food wines. We had a bottle of the shiraz with steak and it was an excellent fit.

The cost of preservative free wines is minimal. As you get into the rarified and certified organic, the prices skyrocket. But it’s worth it and we willingly support the effort.

By Michael 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.

Some of the more common red grapes are; Alicante Bouschet, Aragones/Tinta Roriz, Alfrocheiro, Castelão, Trincadeira/Tinta Amarela, and Touriga Nacional. There are many more, however the majority red of table wines made in Portugal are made of these grapes. Mostly they are blended to make a variety of textured wines, however sometimes you can find single varietal wines which are an interesting change to the blends you usually find. Aragones, also known as Tempranillo across the border in Spain, will be familiar to the wider wine drinking world. Single varietal Alicante Bouschet is also made, but is a big wine! Not for a light meal. Castelão makes a far lighter wine, if you are so inclined. Touriga Nacional makes a well balanced and interesting wine. It is probably the best known single varietal wine coming out of Portugal at the moment.

The last grape in the list is Trincadeira. It is not often thought of as single varietal wine, however it does make a good one. So give you an idea of what sort of wine this grape makes, this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the Quinta de Alcube 2008 Trincadeira. I have chosen this wine because of geographical reasons. By that I mean it is the closest winery to me… The wine has a deep ruby color and has aromas of black berries and spice. Tasting the wine you first notice mouth filling juiciness. Then you get flavors of red berries and cherry, then some good peppery spice at the end. This makes it great to have with grilled lamb or even pasta with a rich red sauce. The juicy mouth and long finish make it quite an interesting wine. Then we come to the price… €5 from the winery! There is a catch however; you can only buy Quinta de Alcube wines from the winery itself.

There are other examples from larger wineries in Portugal such as Esporão, Cooperativa de Pegoes, Cortes de Cima and João Portugal Ramos, which you could look out for. These are also very good wines and I am sure you will find them interesting. Otherwise you could come on a tour with us to visit Quinta de Alcube.

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

So this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the 2001 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial. As with many places in the world 2001 was an exceptional year for wine making. This allowed the winery to make a Reserva. Wines classified as Reserva’s are not made every year, it is only in exceptional years when it is possible for wineries to produce them. When you see that
wineries must age the wine in oak for at least 1 year and another year bottle aging at the cellar – or bodega – to have the word Reserva on the label, you can see why it is only in exceptional years this time and effort is worth it. This wine has been aged 36 months in American oak and bottle aged for a minimum of another 3 years.

It is made of 80% Tempranillo and 20% Granacha, the 2 traditional grapes of the region. It has aromas of spice, vanilla and dried fruits and a lovely cherry red colour. The taste is very well balanced. The tannins are very refined and finish leaves you with a touch of spice, which makes it great to match with food. The local pintxos (tapas) are always a great companion to this wine, but also a light lamb dish would also match this wine perfectly. At €15 from the winery, it was very good value too! If you see it at your local wine shop, give it a try.

All in all, I was quite impressed by the region in my very short time there. It was harvest time and many of the wineries had limited visiting times, so I was not able to visit as many places as I would have liked. It gives me a good reason to go back and visit again though! Next time I will schedule a few days and plan out the wineries I wish to visit before I set off. This is highly recommended in any region you visit, I have often been lucky when visiting many wine regions un-prepared, but it is always good to make a few calls or at least a bit of web surfing beforehand.

By Chris Metcalfe

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 first winery we saw, in Pomerol, was called Chateau Plince. We were a bit hesitant to go there because we thought the place was owned by Japanese. However, the man there was the third in a generation of local Pomerolian owners. He said he spoke very little English, but he did say that the language of wine is international… He showed us a five minute video, in French, gave us a glass of his wonderful 1998, then showed us around the cellar with bottles available for sale from 1998 to 2007, all at very reasonable prices if the 1998 tasting was anything to go by.

The main grape grown here is Merlot – pronounced “mairlloo”, not the Australian “mur-low”, as we discovered from the confused look on the man’s face when we asked the percentage of the blend. The other grape grown here is Cabernet Franc to give some acidic balance to the wine, but is grown, as it is blended, in very small quantities.

We continued down the road we had picked out. We passed Chateau Petrus with tour busses outside and didn’t turn off to Chateau Le Pin because we feared the same tourisity tendencies. Instead, we pulled into another spot just down the road with a grand building and a sign offering tastings.

We say, “degustation?”, and he realizing we aren’t French, says “tasting?” Just then, four other people walk around the corner and he thinks we are part of the same group. “You realize the cost of a tasting is €15?” The well dressed man says. The group of 4 say they know this, as they’ve been to the tourist office in ST Emilion.

€15 for a tasting? Are you crazy! What comes with it? Well you do get to meet the owner as you walk from the car park to the impressive chateau. They are all called chateaus in Bordeaux whether they have a moat and portcullis or just are an old farmhouse.

The man from Chateau Siaurac was far more up market than the owner at Chateau Plince. He spoke impeccable English, once he found that five of us were from Australia (Sydney-siders but we didn’t hold that against them) and one from England. He did the full tour of the grounds and the winery, while explaining his wife’s father was a minister in one of De Gaulle’s governments but didn’t appreciate the vines grown there. We saw the mairlloo grapes and tasted some from the vines. They will be picked next week. He warned against eating the Cabernet Franc grapes, as will be picked in three weeks – but we ate them as well. The winey itself was quite interesting, it was being cleaned to be ready for harvest. It has concrete vats for fermenting as well as the stainless steel. Petrus, rumour has it, has started using the old concrete vats too. Then we saw the barrel room, and then at last, the tasting.

Six tastes were on offer in the opulent tasting room. The 2007 and 2009 wines from their three vineyards in the region; one in St Emilion, one in Pomerol and one in Leland Pomerol – which the man called “the poor man’s Pomerol”. All three had completely different tastes because of what the French call terroir – what the rest of us call dirt and weather. The St Emilion vineyard is on limestone and had a distinctly chalky taste. The poor person’s Pomerol was less than one and a half kilometers from Petrus. It cost €25 compared to €4,000 a bottle.

The pre-release 2009 vintages were great, but production had been severely savaged by hail, only their mature vines had survived to produce a small volume of sensational quality. They won’t cost €25 on release I suspect…

I enjoyed the Pomerol 07 the best. I said the smelt floral, he said violet. I said it was long in the palate, he said it had different textures all along the pallet. He was right on both counts, despite his insistence that we were all our own Parker’s with our own tastes and internal rating systems…

The only wine we bought during the day was a 2001 Chateau Plince. 90% mairlloo, 10% Cabernet Franc. Drinking it a day later, it was gorgeous. Great colour, great floral nose and then a full bodied long taste that was so complex it gave you something different each sip. One of the best wines I have tasted in France and for €27 great value.

This brought up an interesting thought to me. Australian winemakers struggle to make a Merlot, let alone mairlloo with such quality. I wonder why? What do you think? Is it all in the terrior or is it something else?

By Michael Metalfe