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.

The reason a wine producing cooperative is so effective, is because rather than selling on the product they receive, they turn the grapes they receive into wine for resale. The farmers would not be able to produce wine in enough volume or quality to be profitable by themselves, but combining a lot of small growers gives the cooperative the chance to make the volume and quality of wine for their grapes to be profitable.

So this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the 2004 Cinquentenario from Adega Cooperative de Palmela. This is the top type of still wine they produce from the best of the grapes brought to them from over 350 farms around the region. The grapes that go into it are Castelão, Cabernet Sauvignon and Touriga Nacional. This wine is not produced every year. In good years they are able to select the best grapes to make this wine. It is quite dark in the glass and has a stewed berry and toasty aroma. To drink it has lots of fruit, but is lighter than the nose suggests with some spiciness to finish. It goes very well with a light meat dish, or pasta.

I was taken through the process at the winery. Most of the process is pretty much the same as you would find anywhere. The interesting part, along with most cooperatives, is the receiving process. You can imagine how busy it is when over 350 different trucks and tractors turn up all wanting to off-load their grapes at harvest time. Each of the deliveries need to be weighed and checked for quality. The best quality grapes go into the production of the best wines, lower quality grapes, depending on the quality of the harvest, will go into lower quality table wine production. They will never turn away grapes, however they farmer does get less money if they grapes are not in top quality when they arrive, but the vast majority are in good condition. A receipt giving to the driver to confirm what they will get for payment and then it is on to the next receptacle full of grapes. The cooperative then goes about making their different still and fortified wines.

In the case of the Cinquentenario, which is aged for 2 to 3 years in oak and bottle before it goes on sale, the cooperative only covers its costs long after they have paid for the grapes. The cooperative does not exist to make a profit, it is there for the local farmers, so the money you pay for the wine as a consumer goes back to the community, which is a nice feeling. And the €15 you part with for this wine is fantastic value for the quality – and long may that continue!

A cellar door some fifteen minutes walk from the busy centre of Melbourne? Sounds very implausible, but it can only happen in North Melbourne and can only feature Keith Brien and his Silverwings wines.

You know the cellar door is open if the barrel is on the footpath. From the outside it looks just like any other three storey dwelling that has been architecturally designed from an old factory in the middle of an old industrial area.

Keith gave up flying with Ansett when they disbanded in the 19980s and set up a winery in Lancefield in the Macedon region. The wines were superb and the old mansion, Cleveland, was lovingly restored. I can still vividly remember tasting a chardonnay there before the ABC campaign began and it was mind blowingly French in style. It was a 1991 with intense butterscotch flavours, something I’ve been trying to find in chardonnays ever since with very limited success. Experts told me that’s what Chablis should taste like, not the overoaked varieties that scandalised winemaking in Australia for two decades.

As Lancefield is very prone to frost, Cabernet in particular was hard to ripen. Another stand out from the Cleveland days was the Minus 5, a cab-merlot blend, getting it’s name because it was usually picked at that temperature. Keith saved the last vintage, a 1998, as a reserve as he thought it the best he’d produced. You can buy this at $25 a bottle at cellar door but there’s a catch. When he started drinking some a few months ago, he discovered that there was one bottle in each dozen with cork taint. He can’t guarantee you will get twelve to the dozen that are potable.

But you can pick up stunning bargains from now until August. There are some sparkling wines. The Macedon vignerons decide to call their sparklings Macedon to ward off the French “Champagne nazis”. Keith has a Brut Rose for $27 and a 1993 vintage XO Brut with added cognac for $50. Unfortunately, the 1998 Brut sold out on the first day of his winter tasting when I bought the last case at $29 a bottle. The full list of wines to sell before the next pallets of wine come in are listed on the website www.silverwingswines.com.

Some of the wines made for the American market, a Riesling sourced from the Margaret river and a Grenache, Shiraz, Mouvedre blend are absolute steals. The Silverwings flagship wine is a Shiraz-Mouvedre from the Goulburn valley, made from the fruit from old vines planted in the 1950s. The 2008 will be released shortly and will be last of the blend as Keith moves on again to another winery on the slopes of Mount Macedon – not quite full circle.

Coming up soon, after a mandatory trip back to France, Keith will host a tasting where he will rerelease the 1999 Cleveland Pinot Noir pitted against some Burgundies. The 1999 was another wine with a story. I tasted a barrel sample at the winery and was literally blown away. It was huge. Not a timid watery Pinot but a monster with so much alcohol I had to sit down for an hour after the taste. It was a limited release in dozen lots to valued customers as there was precious little produced because of the drought conditions and bird strike. Keith says it is drinking beautifully now, so it might be time to take the cork out of one of the untouched dozen. I am a bit afraid it might still bite me although the label says 14% alcohol, I’m sure it is much bigger than that.

By Michael Metcalfe

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.

On this note, I decided to try a bio-dynamic wine to see if I can be converted. So this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the 2005 Domaine Nivet-Galinier Cotes du Roussillon les Aspres, from the very diverse Languedoc region in France. This wine won a gold medal in the bio-dynamic division at the Exposition of Perpignan in 2008. It is nice that the bottle doesn’t carry this medal on the label as many do now-days when they win something.

I picked up this wine on recommendation from the owner of a small wine store in Paris, not because of it’s bio-dynamic properties, but because he thought I would like it. He was able to give me a taste of it before I decided on my purchase, so I was happy. It was under €30, so very good value for what you get. The wine itself is ruby colour and has great red berry and spicy aroma. Tasting the wine it gives you a lovely blueberry to blackberry opening and a long spicy finish. I had it with a rack of lamb and it match very well. At 15.5% alcohol it packs a punch too. It is a very good wine if you are able to search it out. There were only 6000 bottles produced of this wine, so it could be difficult.

So am I converted to seeking out anything with an eco, bio, or natural on the label now? Well no… This is one of the issues I have with the hype around the bio-dynamic and organic wines; it is difficult to know just what the difference the small changes they have made in the production of grapes has done for the wine. It is not as though you can have a vertical tasting of wines from a vineyard, where one is bio-dynamic and the other is not. Just like you can’t be sort of pregnant, it is either bio-dynamic/organic or not, so you can only cross taste over different vintages before and after they changed their growing techniques. This makes it very hard to know what the differences are in the new found wonders they have unearthed in their change to organic or bio-dynamic wine making…

Critics will say it gives you a far better representation of the terroir, others will say it matters little to the final product, because the terroir itself is responsible for the quality of wine, therefore, wineries who have the best terroir can afford to try different things because they are making the best wine anyway.

It is a very good thing more wineries are using sustainable techniques. However, many wineries are making great wines that are very close to organic certification. So it is hard to value a wine based on a certificate. It is best to ask the winery, the wine shop owner or search the internet if you are worried about a wine producer’s production methods. I am sure your will find most wineries who are producing good quality wine are not using very many non-organic materials in their production. So if a wine does not have bio-dynamic or organic logo on the label, it doesn’t mean the winery is some sort of evil super-villain, working in a chemical lab, producing coloured juice and passing it off as wine.

The next experience was a dinner with some old and new friends in a great restaurant called Chapitô, also in Lisbon. It was great to catch up with friends who were in Portugal on holiday. It was also very good food and a spectacular view over Lisbon and the Tejo river from the restaurant. Once again many wines were poured and much fun was had by all.

The linking factor in these two experiences was one wine we had. So this week’s Wine Experience of the week is the 2009 Cortes de Cima Chaminé. It is a different take on the use of the mainly Aragonez and syrah grapes that are blended to make this wine. It is bottled young and not aged in oak as most wines are in Portugal. It is light bodied, juicy and easy to drink. It is perfect for a warm evening as an alternative to a white or rose, especially if the food on the menu would benefit being accompanied with a red wine. It is a very easy reliable wine and at under €10, it is very good value. For people who do not like oaked red wines and want something a bit lighter this is a good option.

Rather than my usual further discussion on the wine, I would like to focus on some technology the wine bottle uses. Cortes de Cima use Adega’s AVIN numbering system. This is similar to an ISBN number for books. If you search this number AVIN2123282427445, you will find all the information you would ever need on the wine.

Another cool thing if you have a smart phone, you can bring up Adegga.com and then scan coded image to the left. This will bring up other people’s reviews and information on the wine. This was demonstrated by the Adega team and is a very impressive party trick. Many Portuguese wines are now carrying the AVIN number. Hopefully it will catch on in other countries as well. If so, all wines will have a unique code which you can search, rather than looking up the name on Google… Then you will be able to find all the information you need. Very handy if you are at the wine store and want to know if a new wine you have spotted is something you may enjoy.

Look out for this wine, I am sure you will enjoy it if you are looking for a light red alternative. Also look out for wines with an AVIN number on the back label. I think this new numbering system will help many people choosing wine and getting a greater experience from their wine. And it is a great party trick!

It is similar for red wines from Portugal. Most of the red table wines are blends. Trincadeira, Aragonez/Tinta Roriz, Castelão, Touriga Nacional and Alicante Bouschet are the most common native grapes. Each of these grapes make great single varietal wines, however when they are blended you get the aroma and taste of Portugal.

With that in mind, this week’s Wine Experience of the Week is the Cartuxa 2006 Tinot Reserva. It is a blend of Trincadeira, Aragonez, Alfrocheiro and Alicante Bouschet grapes. The Alfrocheiro grape is grown widely in the Dão region, but there are also some grown in the Alentejo where this wine is from. Each grape is fermented separately, then blended and matured for 15 months in French oak. Then it is matured in the bottle for 18 months before release.

The winery is a very interesting place to visit. It is the site of an old Jesuit retreat from teaching in the University of Evora. The inside the main building, it maintains pretty much the same temperature year round. A perfect retreat from the hot summers – and the aging of wine. The winery is well worth a visit if you are in Portugal.

The wine a dark ruby colour and has a very rich aroma of plum, coffee and licorice. The initial taste is rich and fruity. A lot more smooth and mild than huge aromas hint at. Then comes toasty flavors followed but chocolate and then a long spicy and slightly aniseed finish. This is what Portuguese red wines are all about; interesting, individual and quite big at 14.5% alcohol. A great wine for under €20 from the winery!

It will go very well with red meat or stew-like dishes. If you see it, or any other blended Portuguese red for around the same price, give it a try. I am sure you will be impressed.