Wine Fictions

 One of the main doubts that invades me before opening a bottle of wine is whether this unique time that I am doing it is the right one. Being a "Reserva" this question is even more dramatic. To be properly done, I should have read something about the wine before, know what the enologue recommends, make my own calculations about the time when it was produced and what sort of storage have I given to the wine. Even though it sounds rather complicated, it is, in fact, quite an easy and even agreeable thing to do.  My major weakness in the whole process is an uncontrollable wish to open the bottle whenever I start digging information about it, ignoring some of the major advises to do it later.  And that is exactly what happened with this Poliphonia. When I have started reading the whole historical background offered by the company on the wine description, along with some good information about the enologue, it just happened that the bottle ended up open. And soon I realized t...

 From one of Germany's most known wine regions, here is a pure Riesling which reflects in quite a pleasant way the terroir where it was produced. Traditional for the Rhine hills are strong mineral Rieslings allied with refreshing citrus and this Schumann Nägler is not an exception..  Even though there is a strong minerality which gives us an almost sparkling feeling, in this case the citrus are predominant, revealing themselves particularly green with a lime scent absolutely refreshing. For a long time I have reserved the seasons of the year to different kinds of wine. The perspective of having a white wine in the middle of the winter sounded for me as some sort of deadly sin as well as having a glass of red wine in the warm Portuguese south sounded like the last of options.  Till the moment came that a German producer at a wine fair in Hamburg has tried to convince me wrong. He argued that I should rather focus on what I want to pair the wine with and, in his particular...

 For many years Syrah has been my favourite grape variety due to its strong vanilla taste allied with ripe berries and the volume that it creates in our mouth.  My first adventures in mono-varietal Syrahs came from the southern region of Portugal of Alentejo where the dryness and long sun exposure reinforces some of these features. With time I have started to try to find out how the grape reacts in different climates, realizing that colder climates brought some different characteristics such as converting the ripe berries to a more cassis taste.  In a way that's what happens when you compare this Quinta da Escusa with some southerner Syrahs such as the above mentioned Alentejo region in Portugal or Australian or South African examples, but not getting as extreme as when you compare it with a standard Bordeaux.  The first thing that has surprised me in this wine was how light it was when compared to the Selected Harvest from the same producer. It is in fact quite a de...

Growing up in Portugal in the 90s has brought with it a sort of general obsession from cities and villages from all over the country to be recognized as capitals of something. In the case of the place where I was born, it became known as the Gothic capital due to the considerable amount of early Gothic churches spread all over the city. About 14km away there is Cartaxo which in 2002 has gotten the denomination of Wine Capital. I have to confess that at the time I was rather puzzled and skeptical about such thing. Being at college at the time I had developed a tremendous passion for the Douro region and the complexity and maturity of its wines and have always been suspicious of the wines produced around the place where I was born.  Slowly my opinion started changing and I was already living in Germany when I have finally fallen in love with the Tejo wines and with the tasting worlds that they offer. This Coudel Mor is a good example of how you can intensively dive in a noble and ele...

 As soon as Hamburg started getting on a Christmas feeling, there are certain tastes which start rising. My wife starts asking for cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg seasoning along with red cabbage and strongly marinated herring.  On my behalf I have to confess that Port wine offers me a whole set of memories which are carved with long Christmas evenings along with a lot of people and good talking.  Due to the restrictions this year Christmas was kept short but the wish to share some Port was there.  The chosen one was this Messias LBV 2013 which has one of the most emblematic bottles of Port I know. Its black shape with white letters still carved in ink has always fed my imaginary about what Port wine was and still is nowadays. In the mouth had all the properties that you can expect from a LBV: strong wood, spices and a long and pleasant ending. Its intensity creates a sort of smoky atmosphere in the mouth asking for dark chocolate and Christmas´ desserts. In fact, this P...