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Food & Drink in the Algarve, Portugal
what to drink during your stay in the Algarve
The Wines of Portugal - Port
Bom Dia
Welcome to the wine article for June and the start of the Great British Summer! Yes, I can tell that I am in the UK this time around as I sit in my office watching the rain come down and the Bank Holiday weekend begin.
Firstly this month something on the story of Port, and what better way to illustrate at least part of the subject by detailing a tasting I hosted just last week in Nottinghamshire. Yes, on yet another wet evening which fortunately failed to dampen the enthusiasm of 60 or so tasters who were determined to learn and understand about, and most importantly drink (sorry - taste) a selection of styles of Port Wine.
 The idea was to show how much more there is to Port than you might think, so we put together 8 diverse wines, to include one Madeira, and also provided a selection of `nibbles' to show how the wines additionally have great food matching potential.
The opening `aperitif' wine was a Porto Branco, White Port - this example from Noval, the `drink that time forgot' but also the Portuguese national drink. As I told the group, the locals will serve this for their elevenses, and twelveses, oneses and twoses, etc! The tasters were not `allowed' to touch any of the accompaniments until I said so over the PA system - 60 people, 8 Ports so you understand the need for the mike!, but I encouraged them to have some of the excellent almonds with this wine - a great combination.
These white Port wines often take on a very deep amber/gold colour as they are allowed to age and mature in barrels before bottling; a great example of this genre is Churchill's (Adnams £13.99) which has 10 years such ageing, and is fantastic with Cheddar cheese by the way. Also try this summer (!) a `Portonic', self-evidently White Port & Tonic Water.
 Next it was a flight of 3 Red, or to be correct Ruby, Ports - beginning with the house Ruby of Adnams in Suffolk, bottled for them by the famous Port family of Symingtons, one of course of the many original British families that founded the Port industry. This is everyday, entry level of very drinkable Ports that can be found from many producers in every retailer often at prices from £5-6 upwards. Second in this flight was Fonseca Bin No 27 Finest Reserve. Whilst there is no real legal meaning to the terminology, the old house of Fonseca who date back to the early 19th century, have always placed some of their best `cuv£es' into Bin 27 in their warehouse in Porto. In simple terms a superior Ruby Port (retailing at £8.99 in Waitrose). This section closed with an example of the relatively rare style - Crusted Port. This term means wines that are blends of several top vintages, which are then aged for just a couple of years (like Vintage Port) in barrel then bottled to age and mature, throwing a `crust' or sediment. So this example was bottled in 2000. Retailing at £12.99, again in Waitrose, this wine was hugely popular with the audience.
Time for a change of style and into a 10 year old Tawny, long a British Favourite, and on a previous occasion I have accompanied this style with fresh Peaches. Tonight however it was tasted with the nicely mature Roquefort cheese. And it could just as happily have been served with Foie Gras too, and of course it was correctly served, well chilled like our White Port earlier. Try the older, 20 year for example, Tawnies too.
 Then it was back to reds to close, apart from the Rich Madeira with a Late Bottled Vintage and an old `full' Vintage Port. The LBV is another style that is produced commercially and is therefore widely available, at prices from around £10.99 upwards. The wine of a single vintage yes, but matured in barrel for between in this case 4 and usually 6 years before bottling to be drunk fairly soon after that.
Time too with the LBV and the Vintage for the Chocolate; not just any chocolate but 70% Cocoa dark! Just fantastic with these two wines and for the chocoholics amongst them and you, the perfect double sin - Port in one hand and chocolate in the other, being one of just a few wines that do work with chocolate.
So with great drama and theatre I carefully decanted the four bottles of Borges 1980, with their rotting corks and much sediment after its 24 years in the bottle. Whilst there wasn't exactly silence, the group had each consumed six glasses of Port before this (!), dare I say `slightly flushed' faces portrayed their great enjoyment of this rare and special treat.
 By the way Ports, like most fortified wines should not be kept very long once opened; perhaps a few weeks at absolute maximum for the heavier styles. Of course once decanted the 1980, like any vintage Port just had to be finished at that sitting. My closing message therefore on behalf of the IVDP is - Drink more Port and DRINK QUICKER!
At the end of the night every taster was asked to vote for their favourite wine, only one vote per person. The result was a real cross-section but I must report that one lady insisted on voting for every single Port!
I have not forgotten the lovely Madeira at the end, but will return to this another time. By the way, for those of you in the area, we are hosting another dedicated session on Port in Northampton on Thursday 9th November. If you would like to come along, please email or call us and we'll let you have all the venue and booking details. It will be another fantastic and enjoyable evening.
Also, next month we are hosting a Portuguese Wine Dinner for the Institute of Directors at a lovely country house hotel location, and who knows we may even get to have our aperitif, of course of Porto Branco, outside. Again I will report back on this but if you would like just such a dinner for your business group or club, do contact me so we can put this together for you.
London International Wine Trade Fair
Just over a week ago thousands of members of the International wine trade gathered at ExCel in London's Docklands for the annual 3 day show that is the centrepiece of the industry. I will report on this event, from a Portuguese perspective, next time out
 But before I close, I have been asked to remind you about the excellent example of Algarve wine; seek out Vida Nova from your local Waitrose store (if you have one); one of the few examples of Algarve wine available in the UK. It's not inexpensive, but bear in mind that it is made by an excellent winemaker called David Baverstock. David, although obviously not being native Portuguese, has lived and worked in the country for many years, making some excellent local wines. Unusually you will find a percentage of Syrah (a.k.a. Shiraz) in this wine. Oh, and by the way, this is the estate and wine of Sir Cliff Richard! Algarve Retreats have now investigated visits to the estate and can advise you where to ring to make an independent reservation, the cost and, how to get there, etc. Click here for more information.
This time next month I will be in Porto so will be writing up that visit to the great city of Port Wine for you. Until then enjoy your Portuguese wines.
“PORT”
for EAKRING WINE SOCIETY
Saturday 20th May 2006
Wine Educators International in conjunction with
THE PORT WINE INSTITUTE
Presenter: Martin Ward
Noval Extra Dry White
Adnams Ruby
Fonseca Bin No. 27 Finest Reserve
Dow's Crusted
Noval 10 yr. old Tawny
Quinta do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage 1999
Borges Vintage 1980
And to finish (you) off - something different:
Blandy's Rich `Duke of Clarence' Madeira
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
Have you got anywhere to stay yet?
Look here first - click below
villas apartments hotels pousadas selected hotels
or to choose from over 600 other private properties throughout the Algarve go to
http://www.algarvevillasdirect2you.co.uk
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