Wine club II
Being reminded this morning about our Wine Club reunion this evening, I realized that I was yet to review our last meeting, that happened on the beginning of February.
We dedicated our last reunion to Portugal. Sadly, my country is still waiting for the deserved truly recognition of its wines. For the majority of wine enthusiasts, Portugal is synonym with Porto wine and that is it. While Porto wine is, undoubtedly, a wonderful flag for our place in the world of wine, either disregarding or poorly rating everything else that is produced is a shame, to say the least. The only thing Portuguese producers can be blamed for is their scarce investment on serious international advertisement. But if the quality of the wine was dependable on that, the new wine enthusiasts would never know about many Premiere Cru. Wine should be experienced apart from prejudices - as everything in this life - but I guess that is just me daydreaming again. As a matter of fact, some renown wine critics (this is one of those occupations I tend not to feel particular sympathy for. Maybe I will address my views on this in the future) have find themselves in very awkward positions when blind tasting and that should say enough.
Back to our last reunion. We started with Cartuxa Reserva 2005. This is a red wine produced in Évora, Alentejo. Alentejo is the name given to the southeastern part of Portugal. The region was once called "the barn of Portugal" for being the region responsible for the production of the totality of the grain consumed in the country. With EU everything changed and, since there are production share marks to be followed (and Portugal had been given to assault by Germany to France, Spain, Deutschland and England, mostly), we ended up importing a great deal of our consuming goods, while EU keeps giving money to portuguese producers to throw their production in the garbage, literally! Thus, Alentejo these days produces cork - the major World producer, actually, responsible for more than 60% of the annual production, followed by Spain and Italy -, olives and olive oil (one of the best in the World, as well), cheese, sausages and prosciutto (you would be surprised with the quality of them all!), and wine.
In terms of wine production, Alentejo is a DOC respected region, nowadays. Most red wines are made from Arangonez, Trincadeira and Tinta Calada grapes, or a blend of the three. Cartuxa Reserva 2005 is a successful blend of the three that rested 15 months on barrels of French oak and another 12 months in the bottle before had become available to purchase.
This wine brings strong notes of iron, alcohol and oak to the nose while; in the palate, it feels a little bit spicy and acidic with great body - almost fruity! - and lots of tannins (yet!), presenting us with a moderate finish. Since we could not have firm goat cheese form Alentejo to pair with it, we chose a beautiful piece of Garrotxa, a spanish firm goat cheese. The pairing was delightful!
The dessert wine was also Portuguese and it was a muscatel from José Maria da Fonseca winery. This winery stretches its production from southwestern (Setubal) to southeastern (Alentejo) Portugal along 700 acres of vineyards. They are known for combining modern technology with fermentation processes from roman times. The result is top wines, invariably. We had the muscatel Trilogia, a blend of the three best harvests of Setubal's muscatel from the 20th century - 1900 (15%), 1934 (15%), and 1965 (70%).
This wine is absolutely fantastic! It blows the nose with dry fruits (raisins, mostly) and cigars (!!) and more subtle notes of wood and alcohol. In the palate explodes with figs, honey and wood; it is very rich, although moderately sweet, with a spicy acidic tone. The finish takes a pleasant eternity. The best pairing for this wine is either chocolate or cigars (or both!). We paired it with Belgian Dark Chocolate truffles and it was very successful.
At the end, we all agreed that Portugal is keeping its secrets very well hidden. That is, fore sure, our biggest mistake. On the other hand, by doing that, we kind of recognize that only special people deserve to enjoy our most precious treasures. And isn't that true for everything in life?
We dedicated our last reunion to Portugal. Sadly, my country is still waiting for the deserved truly recognition of its wines. For the majority of wine enthusiasts, Portugal is synonym with Porto wine and that is it. While Porto wine is, undoubtedly, a wonderful flag for our place in the world of wine, either disregarding or poorly rating everything else that is produced is a shame, to say the least. The only thing Portuguese producers can be blamed for is their scarce investment on serious international advertisement. But if the quality of the wine was dependable on that, the new wine enthusiasts would never know about many Premiere Cru. Wine should be experienced apart from prejudices - as everything in this life - but I guess that is just me daydreaming again. As a matter of fact, some renown wine critics (this is one of those occupations I tend not to feel particular sympathy for. Maybe I will address my views on this in the future) have find themselves in very awkward positions when blind tasting and that should say enough.
Back to our last reunion. We started with Cartuxa Reserva 2005. This is a red wine produced in Évora, Alentejo. Alentejo is the name given to the southeastern part of Portugal. The region was once called "the barn of Portugal" for being the region responsible for the production of the totality of the grain consumed in the country. With EU everything changed and, since there are production share marks to be followed (and Portugal had been given to assault by Germany to France, Spain, Deutschland and England, mostly), we ended up importing a great deal of our consuming goods, while EU keeps giving money to portuguese producers to throw their production in the garbage, literally! Thus, Alentejo these days produces cork - the major World producer, actually, responsible for more than 60% of the annual production, followed by Spain and Italy -, olives and olive oil (one of the best in the World, as well), cheese, sausages and prosciutto (you would be surprised with the quality of them all!), and wine.
In terms of wine production, Alentejo is a DOC respected region, nowadays. Most red wines are made from Arangonez, Trincadeira and Tinta Calada grapes, or a blend of the three. Cartuxa Reserva 2005 is a successful blend of the three that rested 15 months on barrels of French oak and another 12 months in the bottle before had become available to purchase.
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| The credits of this picture belong to "Garrafeira Campo de Ourique" |
This wine brings strong notes of iron, alcohol and oak to the nose while; in the palate, it feels a little bit spicy and acidic with great body - almost fruity! - and lots of tannins (yet!), presenting us with a moderate finish. Since we could not have firm goat cheese form Alentejo to pair with it, we chose a beautiful piece of Garrotxa, a spanish firm goat cheese. The pairing was delightful!
The dessert wine was also Portuguese and it was a muscatel from José Maria da Fonseca winery. This winery stretches its production from southwestern (Setubal) to southeastern (Alentejo) Portugal along 700 acres of vineyards. They are known for combining modern technology with fermentation processes from roman times. The result is top wines, invariably. We had the muscatel Trilogia, a blend of the three best harvests of Setubal's muscatel from the 20th century - 1900 (15%), 1934 (15%), and 1965 (70%).
This wine is absolutely fantastic! It blows the nose with dry fruits (raisins, mostly) and cigars (!!) and more subtle notes of wood and alcohol. In the palate explodes with figs, honey and wood; it is very rich, although moderately sweet, with a spicy acidic tone. The finish takes a pleasant eternity. The best pairing for this wine is either chocolate or cigars (or both!). We paired it with Belgian Dark Chocolate truffles and it was very successful.
At the end, we all agreed that Portugal is keeping its secrets very well hidden. That is, fore sure, our biggest mistake. On the other hand, by doing that, we kind of recognize that only special people deserve to enjoy our most precious treasures. And isn't that true for everything in life?
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