Mini Wine Tasting with Catavino & Adegga

While visiting our friends from Adegga, during a recent Lisbon trip, we got the opportunity to also meet the Catavino’s, otherwise known as Gabriella & Ryan Opaz. Besides finally getting to put faces to names & emails, we also got to eat and drink wine!

Catavino

Although, a long drive home meant we’d miss the deliciousness soon to come out of the kitchen, we did squeeze in a mini wine tasting, with 3 whites Gabriella and Ryan brought for all of us to try. We also, learned a valuable lesson… next time there’s wine, food and this gang, we’re staying for the weekend!

The wines:

Planalto Douro Reserva, 2006
Casa de Paços , 2005
Quinta de Paços Arinto Reserva, 2005

For detailed tasting notes, plus the recipes for the great dinner we missed, stroll on over to Catavino.

Rosé Wine: Fonte de Nico 2006

There’s nothing quite like a bottle of chilled Rosé to welcome summer, actually think we’re still officially in spring but with such gorgeous weather lately who’s going to argue the point?

Quinta da Esperanca - Alentejo Wine

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with wines from the Alentejo right now. There are so many of them; I couldn’t possibly keep up unless I developed a habit. Plus, most of the time, my palette just fancies trying different regions, and considering Portugal is full of wine regions, its hardly a problem satisfying a promiscuous pallet.

On a way out to dinner at a friends, we thought to pick up a nice bottle of red, unsure of what would be served it was a a bit of a gamble, so when we came across a bottled decked out with metals resembling a decorated soldiers uniform, we thought we were in good hands.

When time came to serve this highly awarded red, we were excited to see what the fuss was all about. But on trying the wine, the look on the faces at dinner said something else….no one seemed impressed…what? Hummm, not the reaction we expected or hoped for - the wine was flat, and dare I say, chalky. Feeling let down, we went on with dinner anyway, then about 3/4 of the way through, we all noticed something…the WINE! Bold, rich, fruity and distinctive….that’s what the fuss was all about, this sleeping beauty needed to breath! Should have known better, especially with a 2004, we could have decanted Quinta da Esperanca well before, and had a wonderful wine right from the start. Note for next time.

If you’ve got a meaty, tomato or herb rich meal, or some great cheeses give this bottle a try. But remember to decant it, and give it lots of surface area to breath before serving, taking the cork out won’t do it justice, it needs room to breath. Saude!

Quinta da Esperanca 2004
Region: Alentejo (see photos on flickr)

More Info Here

Porca de Murça - Douro Tinto 2005

Some days picking out a wine takes a lot of contemplation, other times its a quick grab, and hope for the best. Recently, with guest about to arrive and no time to prepare, I made a quick dash to the new and very hip Pingo Doce supermarket, in Faro - my mission, wine and cheese!

Algarve Wine Tours - Adega Do Cantor

Unlike the Douro, the Algarve isn’t really known as a wine producing region in Portugal, but not long ago we wrote a post about a great wine we stumbled on, from right here in the sunny south. What we didn’t know at the time, was more to the story of wine in the Algarve than we knew.

Vida Nova Wine

As the old saying goes, ‘one good thing leads to another’, and before long we discovered another Algarvian wine, Vida Nova. Curious about this new find, we ended up at the Vida Nova Vineyard: Adega do Cantor, in Guia. Not knowing what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised with what we found.

João Clara Tinto 2006- Vinho Regional Algarve

After some time away, it’s nice to come back to a surprise like this!

A couple of nights ago, we were introduced to a new and special character; João Clara - a beautiful red wine from right here in the Algarve. What a wonderful and unexpected surprise - this wine is very young, but shelved for a couple of years, and WOW. Its strong aroma grabs you as soon as it’s poured and its flavor is robust and dry with mild wood and red berry flavours, and a super clean finish. Thrilled that this wine comes from right here in our backyard.

Joao Clara - Vinho Regional Algarve