Quinta da Fata Encruzado Crú 2021

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 It is now a couple of months that I am getting a newsletter from a wine shop where a wine from this winery is wrongly written. Fara insted of Fata may seem, and it sure is, a simple typing mistake, but week after week it seems to me rather sloven as if no care is being paid to it.

Another example is on this flyer that I have found at a shop where there's a picture of a Shyraz bottle, with a title of a GSM and as a grape it is given Cabernet Sauvignon. Puzzling, to say the least.


What about the following? 


A complete disconnection between image and content. A wine from Valencia with the description of a Portuguese Vinho Verde. I believe no further comments are needed. 

Having recently been busy ordering wine online for a wedding to which I was responsible to do the wine pairing I have come across countless mistakes and texts which varied from a lyrical romanticism to pure carelessness in order to try to feed people's fantasies about what wine really is in a strange cocktail of common places and false references. 

In this sense I find the recent Threads by Hugo Mendes really good as he manages to show what making wine really is about, offering you a special and somehow exclusive insight of the whole process.

The above given examples belong to both small and big wine traders revealing a problem which seems to be transversal to people working with selling wine: a complete carelessness which seems to  me disrespectful for both the final customer and to the product they are selling.  

At a time that wine sales are dropping all over, this is definitely not helping to offer a better image of the branch.

Personally, I never feel like buying a wine from a place that has such mistakes as I tend to subconsciously assume that the product they are trying to sell is also faulty.  

But going to the wine which has motivated this post:

Quinta da Fata Encruzado Crú is a 100% Encruzado which has matured for 12 months in new barrels. 


This has conferred one of Dao's star grapes a Burgundyesque character where fresh minerality combines perfectly with some creaminess and body. 

The typical citrus and light green herbs are very well defined  and it is always a tremendous pleasure to feel how the granite soils highlight the major features of one of the most fascinating Portuguese grapes.  

 In fact, this is a more than valid alternative to the often overpriced south Burgundy Chardonnays as it often happens in the Dao region. Known for being the Portuguese Burgundy, it often offers great value for what you pay.

If you are looking for something special to accompany a unique meal, this may well be your choice. 

Fortunately, most of the people who produce wine still offer a more serious piece of work than most sellers.

 

17/20
Country: Portugal
Region: Dao
Grapes: Encruzado
13%
Winemaker:  Eurico Amaral

Website: https://quintadafata.com/?page_id=538

 

Location: Hamburg, Germany

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