Wine Fictions

Wine and literature.  For me these two words belong together in a very special and intricate way. Literature has enough examples of deep connection to wine. From Omar Khayam to Goethe  there have been several writers which have made references to wine and this number does not seem to stop growing in what seems to be a pretty special relationship.  Getting into a more daily life level, I often get asked at work about what I am reading and, in some cases, I even get books borrowed. Confidence wise, this is something that definitely connects to my previous post .   Now that I am reading Murakami's  The city and its uncertain walls  the number of people who ask me about it is even bigger, attesting the author's popularity.  Something that has also marked me was this good friend of mine saying that he was first driven to drink Chablis after having read Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress .   Close to where I was born there was this em...

 When a product is particularly cheap Germans often use the expression "it's a fair price" to refer to it.  Being a non native German speaker, the question that often invades me is : Fair to whom? To the farmer? To the winemaker? To the transport people? To me who is selling you the bottle, to the labeling team, the marketing, the pickers, and the list could go on almost without an end. Certain is just that this expression annoys me to an unimaginable extent. The answer is quite obvious that it is fair for the customer as it gives them the feeling of saving money. This is quite common among older customers and even though I almost tend to see it as a generational thing, it still annoys me whenever a wine is described as having a fair price. Having recently been in Portugal, I came across A Talha wine shop in Sines. Strategically located close to the Arts Centre it is a more than pleasant surprise as soon as you get in. Very discreet from the outside but a guaranteed wine...

 Having been back in Portugal I have experienced how a different social wine culture can influence your global experience as a tourist with a special gastronomic focus. I was deeply impressed with how you could simply get reasonable and totally acceptable wine wherever you went, contrasting with most experiences that I have from northern Germany where you often get overpriced wine that I often refuse to drink.  Working at a wine shop that regularly sells wine to different restaurants, it is almost painful to see what we sell and how it is further sold after being applied the four times the price rule in what is locally seen as the only way to make it slightly profitable to sell wine.  This leads to normal guests thinking that a 25€ wine at a restaurant is a medium class wine which is, in fact,  an entrance level or even bulk wine. The price of  a 0,2l glass often goes around 6€. I do am conscious that Germany has a different life standard than Portugal, but that...

 In this post I have written about the influence literature can have in what we drink.  If in Lahiri's book the references to wine appear quite often, in Misericórdia by the Portuguese Lídia Jorge there is not a single reference to wine, but the book, for me, had the taste of long well-known wines and that is exactly the reason why I have decided to open this Duas Quintas white.  A cuvée of typical white grapes from the Douro valley it presents itself with nice white peach flavours allied with some floral notes of camomile and orange blossom have matched the intense and delicate narrative built by Lídia Jorge.  I know this is a rather wild approach but I did have the feeling that the delicacy and intensity that you can find in this wine matches the feeling of eternal in the narrative that I have just read. Maybe it comes from the different fermentation processes that vary from stainless steel that confers it enough freshness to oak barrels which have given it a bit ...

 Now that the summer seems to have finally arrived in Hamburg and the temperatures are getting close to 30 degrees celsius most people around here rush to get their grills out and enjoy the nice weather. Even though it is an activity mainly accompanied by beer, there has been a growing demand for wines which can both pair the traditional grilled sausages and the warmer temperatures. This may seem particularly complicated, but there are a couple of red wines that are made to drink slightly cooled if not cold.  Governo Toscano or wines which have been submitted to carbonic maceration set themselves in the front line. Still, the wine that I want to write about does not fit in any of the categories above. One of the biggest surprises I have found when I have started working at the shop I am managing was this red Vinho Verde . I have to be honest and confess that the part of the country I come from, I have seen people drinking cooled red wines during summer but nothing that compare...

Since I have started working directly with wine that I have been having the privilege of being in some of the premium locations around Hamburg listening to really interesting people talking about what Germans often define as "the most beautiful drink in the world". This is quite a privilege, I have to admit. I have been learning about wine in ways that I have never expected, definitely enlarging my horizons.  Still,  I have to admit that having been born in the middle of one of the biggest wine producing regions in Portugal ( the second,  according to 2020 reports ) where wine is cheaper than beer,  puts me in a position that most northern Germans envy, as wine is seen as something "normal" for me and not the result of an accurate training or learning procedure. This does not mean, in any way, that I am more skilled or qualified than any of the people I have came across lately. Most of the times it is the other way round as I tend to rely on my natural instincts ins...

The more I dive into the world of wine, the more I come across interesting and fascinating projects, such as this one by Hugo Mendes.  Born out of a crowdfunding, Mendes is producing wines with grapes that he is buying from different producers and different regions. This grants him complete freedom on the kind of wines he is producing.  Following a low intervention philosophy, this is quite an exciting project where you can find from amphora wines to orange or some more "conventional" ones, which end up not being conventional at all.  In this case, it is a rosé made exclusively of Touriga Nacional from a region which is not particularly known for this grape.  I have first tried this wine at a wine festival when I have recently visited Portugal and tried it now again in Hamburg where I am trying to convince my chef to start importing the wines from this project. It is quite a dense rosé, revealing very good acidity allied with some herbal notes and red berries which p...

 Tasted in a particularly nice atmosphere  in the middle of an evening dominated by Italian wines, this Portuguese Petit Verdot from the Alentejo region has stood out to me due to its deep body and tremendous complexity revealing some green herbal notes allied to pleasant tertiary flavours such as coffee and tobacco leafs.  Even though it is a thirteen year old wine, it has still shown some vibrant acidity revealing that it is still fit for some more years in the bottle.  Still, there was a question which has assaulted me yesterday: how much of the taste of the wines was influenced by the fact that they were being drunk in the cellar of an iconic historical building surrounded by bottles charmingly stored in cages? The attention and knowledge of the person responsible for our group also played an important role in the general atmosphere of the evening.  I am often confronted with customers who can swear that the exactly same wine tasted absolutely different in a...

 One of the things that I find most fascinating about wine it is the stories around its creation and how they can influence your final perception of it.  The director of the shop where I work has recently confessed me that he has decided to buy a Barca Velha as he came across its history and its particular selection of grapes and how a vintage is determined. In my case, I have been a growing fan of Anibal Coutinho´s Astronauta project where the Oenologist has decided to work with grapes which did not belong directly to him but were carefully chosen in special areas. In the case of this one, Coutinho has chosen one of the Portuguese star white grapes and decided to make a vinho verde even though Arinto finds in the Lisbon area its best expression. I have to confess that I was positively impressed as soon as I felt its tremendous freshness invading my palate, revealing some of the main notes you can find in a vinho verde such as pineapple and grapefruit.  It is definitely...

 Many things have been written about the whole boom that it has been seen in natural wines but like so many other cases, I do defend that the best way to form a proper opinion about it is by trying them.  After having tried different ones, I have started to develop a particular interest in orange wines. Starting from the way that they are made which has called my attention from the very beginning to the complex palate that you can experience these are wines that have been positively puzzling me. Sure I have tried some which have deeply disappointed me but, in general, I can't hide my enthusiasm whenever I come across a new one. This wine produced by one of the star enologues of the country has surprised me in most varied ways from the very beginning.  In the nose it reveals intense straw smell which has transported me to some of my childhood smells at my aunt's farm in the Tejo region.  The colour has confirmed its typical orange and in the mouth I found it rather co...

 As I have been coming across more and more sorts of wines I have been feeling a tendency to look for more exquisite and exclusive things which can grant you a more unique experience.  I have to confess that I am the sort of person who easily feels seduced whenever a good or interesting story is told and this particular project has enough history to get me seduced from the very first moment. Coming from one of the smallest protected denominations in Portugal, the Carcavelos´ wines have been an international reference for quite some centuries now making themselves present in the market of fortified wines mainly dominated by Port and Madeira wines. With a strong historical connection to the emblematic Portuguese minister Marques de Pombal who became famous for his reconstruction of Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755, this fortified wine has known a new life recently, being integrated in a project of the Municipality of Oeiras in order to grant it some support and more visibilit...

Let me go straight to the subject: this is an absolutely amazing wine and probably one of the best ones I have come across in these last times. Dense but at the same time silky delicate and intense without losing its freshness it is a fascinating wine from the first to the last drop, reflecting a very particular terroir at the foothills of the Sao Mamede mountain giving it a completely different structure than the one you often find in other Alentejo wines.        While drinking it I had a light feeling of drinking something dark and profound as if it was blood. This was probably due to its intense minerality allied with seducing notes of black pepper, but I am finding words not good enough to describe the whole complexity of the experience I had.   Being so, I can only recommend each of the readers of these words to try it! Over and over. With it I would recommend the irreverent and hilarious poetry of Shel Silverstein which keeps on renewing my love for i...

In order to celebrate the 100th birthday of one of the most iconic Portuguese singers of the 20th century, Adega Mayor has made a special edition of 3 bottles with illustrations by three Portuguese illustrators. Having a neighbour for dinner the other day, I have decided to open the one with the illustrations by Tiago Albuquerque (the first one on the left).  After some polite comments about the label and how southern Europeans tend to be more aesthetical than northern Germans and being truly interested when I have told him that this wine belongs to a coffee company, the time has finally came to open it. Its vivid red colour has also seduced my guest from the very beginning and its intensive and somehow fresh taste of red berries and light  tobacco and leather notes was the perfect match for an Autumn risotto with mushrooms and pumpkin.  Even if it has not impressed me as much as some other wines from the same winery (such as their marvellous Reserva or the fascinating Vi...

 Just like it happens with books or music, a wine recommendation can play a decisive role on how you model your friendships. I remember a couple of cases of looking at someone after having read a book they recommended and thinking: oh, that's the sort of person you are. For the best and for the worst.Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are - that could be a pretty wise saying, specially for someone like me who has previously worked on a library. A similar thing happens with wines.  There's the people who vividly recommend wines swearing that a certain wine is the best thing ever made since the old Romans, the ones who say it in a rather discreet way, the ones who simply command you to buy a certain wine. No matter the way people use to recommend a certain wine, just like what happens with books, there are certain people that you trust more than others. In the case of this Contraste, it was a rather discreet recommendation from a friend of mine that I often meet ...

 There are a lot of excuses I can think of to try to justify why I have opened this Reserva so early, but none of them sounds strong enough to hide the truth that I could not wait any longer to open a typical  Douro wine now that the Autumn seems to have settled in Hamburg. Somehow the upcoming of the new season arises in me the nostalgic wish of feeling dark berries allied with decent woody vanilla notes. It is, for me, a perfect match for the falling of the first golden and reddish leaves which start covering the streets of the city. Sometimes wines just manage to correspond to our inner mood and reflect the multitude of feelings that may invades us at a determined time. Even though I have to recognize that it was definitely too early to open this wine, it has also answered in almost perfection to my expectations. A predominant Touriga Nacional with its particular reaction to wood contact has granted me the satisfaction that I was looking for.  The other traditional gra...

One of the main Portuguese enologues which has been seen his work recognized in a rather mediatic way in the last years has also been enlarging his wine projects in a quite impressive way, having started different projects all around Portugal and even in Germany having received generalized acclaim by the specialized press. I have to confess that when reading about them I always grow curious to taste most of his work. And so it was with this Dócil, produced by Dirk Niepoort. Having started in Douro, this project takes us to the Vinho Verde region to a single grape wine with one of the most representative grapes of the region, Loureiro.  My first impression when I've opened the bottle was of a decent well done wine, but nothing that could match my personal expectation. After such a publicity I came across a rather flat wine which seemed to deny me the appealing citrus that I often find in this particular grape. Maybe that's the reason for its name: Dócil (Docile). Being so, the f...

 My relation with white Douro wines is sort of recent as I have always somehow neglected them without any specific reason for it.  I confess I have been trying to find an explanation for it, but I just can't. Still, as soon as I have started trying them, it did not took me long before I have fallen in love with some of its most representative grapes such as Viosinho, Rabigato or Verdelho due to the way they reflect a particularly special terroir which has already fascinated me with its reds.  To the referred grapes, this Quinta da Pedra Escrita also has Alvarinho, which often appears as one of the star grapes of the Vinho Verde region and the "foreign" Viognier. In short, this is an impressively complex wine which offers an incredible explosion of different tastes and dynamics when we are drinking it.  On the one hand the sweet fruity tastes of wildflowers and grapefruit that Rabigato and Viognier give and on the other the fascinating minerality that both Verdelho an...

 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...

I know that I often refer to the visual impact of a bottle in our perception of its content but somehow I just can not dissociate both. In Portuguese it is said that "the eyes also eat" and that is absolutely true not only in this Quinta do Portal Colheita as in all the other wines of Quinta do Portal. I do strongly recommend you to have a look at their portfolio and enjoy their artwork. About this Colheita I have to say that the first thing that has impressed me was its freshness and livelihood as I was expecting a rather more heavy and dense Douro wine.  With vivid red fruits and floral notes  it is an explosion of spring in your mouth with a long and persistent ending. According to the enologue it is also recommendable to let it age for a while in the bottle which has made me directly get another one as I am particularly curious to see how it will keep on developing.  I may have been too precipitated on opening it so soon, but I can also recommend it as it has matched ...

The other day a friend has invited me for an online wine tasting that he was organizing. Theme: Portugal. I have to confess that at first I was a bit sceptical about how you could organize such a thing and how your personal perception and enjoyment of it could be.  About the organization I have to confess that it was with a sort of childish joy that I have given the bottle I have selected for the tasting and half an hour later got 12 small bottles properly numbered. This excitement kept on growing till the beginning of the tasting.  From the twelve participants I knew only three but that was not a problem as we soon got to the purpose of the evening, discussing in a rather passionate way the wines that we were coming across. None of the participants, except the organizer, knew which wines we were trying, giving it a very similar feeling of a blind tasting. From the beginning it became clear that most of the participants did not really have too much experience with Portuguese w...