Wine Fictions

 With Christmas and New Year's there is not only a rise in the amount of wine consumption but also, in my very personal case, a long and deep thought about which wines to open to go through these days that I am not particularly a fan of.  More than just picking up the best ones I have around, it is, in fact a by far more difficult question. For Christmas I have taken in account not only what would be cooked but also the people who would be drinking with me. Besides that there was also another important conditioner of my choices: Saudade . This festive times are often quite emotional on how much I miss being in Portugal. That was the reason that led me to making a last minute wine order by one of the most important portuguese wine retailers in Germany . Briefly after having set my order, I have gotten a phone call from the owner preventing me from buying one of the wines as it was not good any longer.   Positively impressed, I have started praying that the delivery se...

 More than fifty posts after I have started this blog, I am finally going to make my considerations about a sparkling wine.  The reason I have taken such a long time to do it is my personal reluctance about sparkling wines. They are simply not my kind of thing, even though I am surrounded by several friends who defend it with great enthusiasm and always try to persuade me wrong. One of the attempts was to try this Astronauta Baga 2015, produced by Aníbal Coutinho and his fascinating project Astronaut. This Baga was, in fact, produced in the lands belonging to Caves da Montanha which have some of the first sparkling wines that have called my attention in an action by Wines of Portugal in Hamburg for a couple of years.  Once I have tried it, I have to confess that I was absolutely amazed.  Its fine and delicate citrus taste with voluminous notes of vanilla allied with an incredibly perfect and dry ending have surprised and seduced me from the very first moment. Being a...

 In this former post I have made reference to the importance of the lunar cycles to both harvest and tasting of a wine. This is a theme that has lately been popping around me and, having interested me from the very first moment, led me to this article which I strongly recommend to have a look at.  Being a Waldorf teacher I soon came across the lunar cycles observation and how it influences the most diverse aspects of agriculture,from which I find the full moon harvest particularly interesting. What has recently surprised me was the adaptation of this concept to the drinking of the wine. Through apps such as When Wine it is possible to know whether today is or not a good day to have wine. And this was the decisive point to meet the friend who has introduced me to this theme and open this Quinta das Bágeiras Reserva. With a traditional mix of Baga and Touriga Nacional, this is a wine that reflects the irreverence of the Baga grape, here translated with tempting green berries,...