Quality is no longer a lottery

Feb 15 2008 by Helen Savage, The Journal

WE ALL have gaps in our knowledge. One of mine is called Portugal. This is odd in a way, for the very first glass of wine I ever drank was Portuguese. It was Mateus Rosé, and I was 11. As a special Boxing Day treat I was allowed a thimbleful to help wash down my cold turkey and pickles. I felt ever so sophisticated.

Although I’ve always been more than happy to try any new Portuguese wines that have come my way, I remember that quality used to be a bit of a lottery. Years ago, one of my favourites was a crisply fresh dry white Vinho Verde that we bought from Richard Granger in Jesmond, Newcastle, but some of the supermarket reds were gum-raspingly astringent.

Standards today are far higher. Wineries that two or three decades ago still depended upon equipment little different from that used by the Romans are now ultra-modern and well-run.

In an attempt to find out what’s good and new from Portugal I went to an extraordinary tasting in London last week of the ‘50 best’ Portuguese wines. I was struck most of all by a startling range of flavours that simply aren’t found in wine from anywhere else.

Climate, geography and wine- making traditions all play a part in this, but one of the most remarkable characteristics of Portuguese viticulture is a unique and incredibly rich palette of grape varieties. It’s the extent of this amazing variety that makes me realise, every time I go to tastings like these, just how little I really know about Portuguese wine.

There was just one rosé on show (and it didn’t come in the kind of bottle I might once have been tempted to turn into a table lamp). And there were only nine white wines. But although Portugal is definitely a red wine country, it was some of these whites that most impressed me.

There were exciting flavours aplenty, often rich, spicy and with stone fruit mixed with ripe citrus flavours. The best also had a lovely lingering minerality. And none of them cost a fortune. The only way in which one or two failed to hit the spot was a slightly over-exuberant use of oak.

This was not a fault that marred many reds. My overall impression of them, irrespective of grape variety or region of production, was power. Some were real monsters with hugely- concentrated black fruit flavours ratcheted up with dry tannin and, occasionally, surprisingly crisp levels of acidity.

Deeply impressive they were and very few fell into the trap of being over alcoholic, but they were anything but easy drinking. I reserve judgment about just how good they really are. I need to taste them again in five or even 10 years’ time – after they’ll have had time for the tannins to soften a little.

By coincidence I went to Richard Granger Fine Wines the day after the tasting. They still stock a number of Portuguese goodies, but wine buyer Mark Rennie explained that one reason they don’t have more is that the big beefy, slow-maturing style of some of the top reds present a problem to the wine merchant who isn’t able to cellar them for a few years before they’re ready to enjoy. And very few, if indeed any these days, have the space or resources to do that.

Perhaps it was no great surprise then that I found the section of ‘10 great value wines’ among the most appealing of the whole London tasting, for here were wines made in a lighter, easier style and very good they were too. They include my wine of the week and also Quinta das Setecostas 2005 from Alenquer, north of Lisbon.

It’s fine value (£5.99 at Sainsbury’s or £6.29 at Oddbins) and combines a good depth of spicy, brambly black fruit with juicy acidity and a welcome lightness of touch.

In fact, looking through my notes after the tasting, I found that I didn’t often warm to the biggest, most expensive wines. I wonder, are some growers trying just too hard to impress? I get the feeling that the best will be made only when the top winemakers learn to take their foot off the gas a little, then Portugal can, and will, out top-notch table wines on a par with the best Port and Madeira.

And I’d love to see more of the delicious, cheaper, less obviously out-to-impress wines achieve the kind of wide distribution that Mateus Rosé once enjoyed (and it’s still going strong!).

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Salt cod, anyone?

ONE of the dry white wines from Portugal I enjoyed so much is stocked locally by Richard Granger Fine Wine in Jesmond, Newcastle.

Casa de Mouraz Branco, DOC Dão 2005 (£8.05) has a big, rich, almost smoky smell, followed by a huge, soft, equally rich, lingering flavour in which toasty oak and lemony fruit combine. I suspect that it would really come into its own with a dish of salt cod.

More fine Portuguese wines are available from another local merchant – Michael Jobling Wines – including some of the monster reds.

VALENTINE’S Day may have passed, but you can keep the romantic spirit going this weekend with Darling Sauvignon Blanc 2007.

Darling, is of course, a region in South Africa, but your beloved will probably not bother to look at the small print on the bottle, which is in the Tesco Finest range. It's a deliciously crisp dry white with a heady smell of green pepper and gooseberry and a passion fruit and gooseberry taste. It's also on special offer until Sunday at just £4.99.

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Wine of the week

Portal da Aguia 2005, Oddbins, £5.99

Wonderful, juicy red wine from the Ribatejo in central Portugal.

It's packed with sweetly ripe black fruit, especially black cherries, dusted with spice. It's brilliant value too. Try it with a robustly-flavoured meaty stew.