It’s been a month and a half since the European Wine Blogger’s Conference, and shamefully, we’re just now getting around to not only retasting many of these wines, but simply entering our notes on the numerous great wines we tasted. Today, I want to point out a wine that I think is starting to mature gracefully and is worth your attention.

In 2006, I visited Herdade Malhadinha, while still in a learning phase regarding Alentejo wines. My palate was exercising itself to include a whole ranging of grapes and flavors I wasn’t used to. It was at Malhadinha that I first realized the great potential of the Alicante Bouschet grape having tasted a wine that was vibrant and alive after spending 16 months in oak.

Not surprisingly, the winery has grown fast, and now boasts a Spa/Country house that we have yet to visit, but I did see the beginnings of the construction last time I was there. From there website (warning heavy use of flash), you can get a feel for the facilities; and it appears to be a nice offering for the growing wine tourism industry of the Alentejo. Only a few hours by car from Lisbon, this is definitely something to check out if you craving a relaxing vacation in the Portuguese countryside.

So how are the wines? A few nights ago, we popped open a bottle of the 2006 Malhadinha Nova and were very impressed. A blend of Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine is foot trodded in a lagar and aged in French oak for 14 months. During my first trip, and subsequent tastings of their wines, I found that I liked the wines, but they seemed to be in a …

I’ll be the first to admit that I can only take so much wine while on a business trip. After awhile, my eyes glaze over and I feel an intense craving to either down a gin and tonic, or at the very least, stay as far as humanly possible from a fermentation tank. And god forbid if I actually start dreaming about wine, like having the winemaker lecturing me on whether one should place a single row of grapes in a bin during harvest or two. Then, there is that one nightmare where I’m chained to a long wooden table adhering labels to each bottle as a raspy female voice sounds over a speaker, “You now have 981,872 labels remaining…you now have 981,871 labels remaining… Yeah, that’s when you know that you’ve visited one too many wineries in a day!

However, over the years, I have realized that it is not so much wine that I tire of, but it’s the way in which I am enjoying it. Sitting in a tasting room with a notebook in hand and my glasses propped low on my nose, a potentially remarkable wine loses its magic. It becomes something sterile and empty, one of the millions. Something I analyze and critique with the winemaker anxiously sitting in front of me wondering if I am giving his liquid child an “A” for stellar quality or an “F” for pure plonk. And when scheduling three wineries a day, this process can get tedious rather quickly.

Hence, on our last trip to Rioja, we decided to start incorporating new ways in which we could enjoy Spanish wine, rather than solely in restaurants, cafes or …