Food & Drink in the Algarve, Portugal

what to drink during your stay in the Algarve

The Wines of Portugal - Red Grape Varieites

Bom Dia

Welcome to the wine article for May!  As promised before, it is time to take a look at the many and varied indigenous Red grape varieties that make Portugal's wines so special.  I am not really sure where to start, except perhaps by saying `don't expect anything famous, that's famous as in what we have come to recognise on the high street shelves and from the so-called `New World'.  So I'll simply run through the famous (to Portuguese winemakers that is) alphabetically, telling you the why's and where's and just what you might expect.

The Alfrocheiro Preto is a grape that gives colour, particularly to the wines of Dao, and also can in some years give high alcohol content, while over in Bairrada it is the Baga variety that rules, accounting for around 80% of the vineyards there, making it one of Portugal's most widely planted grapes. Baga translates to `berry' and the grape is indeed a small, thick-skinned berry. The use of Baga also explains why many Bairrada wines need to be aged - in its youth the variety is very astringent and dryingly tannic.

One of my favourite grapes, if only for its name, is the northern based Bastardo.  Its popularity amongst producers has waned but it is still widely grown in the Dao and Douro.  Its' name has been transferred to one of the local groups of `big cheeses' in the world of wine - The Grand Order of Bastardos!  No comment.

One of the most widely grown varieties in the South is the Castelao Frances (syn. Trincadeira Preta) which also has the lovely alternative name of Periquita or `small parrot'.  In such a warm region, the grapes ripen well and have good levels of red fruit to the taste.  I must mention here, again if only for its name, the Rabo de Ovelha or 'ewe's tail' alternative nomenclature - used specifically in the production of Tinto Vinho Verde.  Yet another synonym for this is Tinta Amarela (Douro).

Amongst the wide range of wines that we will be showing at an event at Manchester's G-Mex Centre over the last weekend of April will be an example of the Jaen grape variety.  The actual wine is Bela Fonte Jaen, and this has always proved a very popular `old school' and great value Portuguese red at many previous events.  Hopefully we will see some Algarve Retreats clients at this event where we are running a series of free tutored wine tastings.  I will report back on the Manchester event in next month's article.

One of the great old vineyard areas, now sadly disappearing under the urban Lisboa sprawl is Colares, where we have the wonderfully unique Ramisco which grows, ungrafted, in sand dunes.  If you see a bottle of Colares, buy it and keep it - the older the better!

The letter T gives us a whole raft of very important varieties, specifically in the Douro and therefore the production of Port.  Tinta Barrocca, which is also grown in South Africa, dark sweet grapes especially well suited to the harsh conditions that sometimes prevail here.  Tinto Cao & Tinta Francisca are here too but more important are the Tourigas - Francesa & Nacional.  The former is amongst the top five recommended for Port production, whilst the Nacional is quite simply one of the best, if not the very best, of Portugal's red grapes.  We will return to this pair and others with the story of Port in the near future.

You might also recall that I had the hard job of attending the annual generic tasting in London at the beginning of March.  Yes, a taxing duty but it had to be done. This once a year gathering saw some 60 producers, importers and agents presenting to the huge trade and press audience some six hundred plus wines over a period of seven hours or so.  No, I did not get to taste them all; just a small selection of a couple of hundred or so! Now you now why we spit out when tasting professionally!

So what impressed me this year? Well firstly the actual turnout of trade and press - there is obviously a huge surge of interest in the wines of Portugal at present as there was a real positive buzz around the event.  This enthusiasm is perhaps borne out by the current in-store promotions in the Waitrose chain, which has seen price offers being accompanied by tastings of a selection of their wines.

Next point of note was quite simply the huge array and diversity of wines and wine styles available on the market today.  We really must all get better at seeing just what it is that Portugal has to offer - it just is not a simple, boring collection of branded wines as is sadly the case of some producing countries today.  I mention no names of course!  I just hope that I can help you all with these Portuguese wine discoveries.

Individually, I came across a couple of excellent examples of Rosado (Rose) wines; a subject as you already know that is very close to my heart - having just returned a couple of days ago from yet another week of island life during which I managed to consume several bottles of this genre - and one which I will doubtless return to when the summer (?) here arrives.  Those Rosados outstanding at the tasting ranged in origin from the much aforementioned Vinho Verde region through to the great Douro Valley itself.

As last year some of the white wines were again very impressive, yet they are still little known.  Two that particularly stood out this time around were an Alentejo white - Herdade Grande Branco Colheita Seleccionada 2004 (a mouthful in more ways than one), made 100% from the Antao Vaz variety, priced around £7.50 and available from Theatre of Wine; and a Bairrada - Campolargo 2004, pure Arinto at £10.95 from Ockse Wines.  Enquiries for both these wines can be made to Richard Cocksedge - rjc@ocksewines.net.

Interestingly amongst the reds many of the traditional regions are now identifying the varieties used in their blends; previously of course the label would just show the region of origin.  Also in the case of the Dao region for example, a number of producers are offering a range of wines from single varieties; again a relatively new idea for such a traditional area.

Until next month, keep drinking the wines of Portugal, enjoy them and the Algarve if you are out there and let me have your thoughts and comments.

Martin Ward    Wine Educators International

If you would like to know more about Portuguese Food and Drink, why don't you dip into our Restaurants in the Algarve section and our series of articles on Portuguese Wines and Ports.  We also feature some Traditional Portuguese Recipes and a glossary of useful Portuguese food & drink words and phrases

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