Last month, when my parents were in town visiting, I took them on one of my favorite local winery tours, the Manor House Museum Tour of José Maria da Fonseca. Easy to find on their website, this legendary Portuguese winery offers daily tours of the founder’s original estate and winery located in the town of Azeitão, just 40 minutes outside of Lisbon in the Terras de Sado wine region. For a small price, you can walk through the antique cellars that still hold their famous barrel-aged red, Periquita and their 100+ special reserve Moscatels de Setubal, while learning about their illustrious wine-making history. At the end, you offered a tasting of 2-3 wines, normally consisting of a white, red and Moscatel.

Being my second visit to the estate, and having already savored some of their whites and Moscatels before, I was looking forward to tasting a red. That paticular day, they had the 2004 Domini, their flagship Douro red produced under their Domingo Soares Franco label with the partnership of Christain Van Zeller of Quinta do Vale Dona Maria. This unfiltered wine aged three months in new oak is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinto Roriz (Tempranillo) and is a beautiful deep red-purple with the aroma of dark fruit, leather, earth and wild mushroom, which I love and have come to encounter in many Douro reds - reminding me of lovely right-bank Bordeaux reds. The palate is more of the dark fruit, plums and black currants with smooth but persistent tannins.

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Where do I begin this rambling and nonsensical post, filled with random bits of information that don’t really deserve a full post onto themselves, but that still need to be said? Well, where else than our “Iberian Links Around the Web”! Similar to your kitchen junk drawer, this post is filled with interesting bits of information that you may not ever need, but may come in use when you least expect it.

The Sixth….Taste

Granted, although we don’t have Haley Joel Osment scaring us with his momentary episodes of seeing dead people, we can be equally freaked out the next time your buddy turns to you after drinking a glass of wine and says, “I’m not really getting a bitter flavor here, but maybe more of a calcium-y taste”. According to Science Daily, beyond sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (similar to savory), humans also have a sixth taste receptor for foods that taste, well, like calcium - a flavor bordering between sour and bitter. It explains why foods that are generally high in calcium such as bok choy, kale and collards, generally come off as bitter if not cooked in a few sticks of butter so that the calcium can bind to the fat cells; whereby, preventing you from tasting it. In relation to wine, it just may explain why some wines are described as more minerally/calcium-y, and can therefore, be monitored in order to obtain a better taste profile. Can you pick out the sixth calcium-y taste in a wine?

Hey, That’s What We Needed! Another Roadblock to Enjoying Sherry!

Chef Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck Restaurant in London, and scientist Professor Don Mottram of Reading …

There is no way I can start this post without sharing my elation that my hand is free to type. For those of you who are not in the know, I have been in a cast for exactly 78 days, as reminded to me by my doctor this morning. But now, my cast is gone, and from its hard powdery depths springs a hand that is dying for some sun, a splash in the sea and the ability to type at lightening speed without hearing “clunk” “clunk” every time my plaster thumb hit the space bar. Ahhh, life is officially good.

So getting back to today’s topic, our featured wines of the week consists of a big, bold Portuguese wine called Preta, in addition to a line of wines called “Sexy”. Portuguese winemaker, António Moita Macanita, along with English viticulturist, David Booth, have attempted to design a simple, yet provocative, red, white and rose that are intended to be light, easy drinking and compliment food.

The question though, as posed by Jamie Good of Wine Anorak, is, “Can a wine be sexy?” Jamie argues that these wines don’t necessarily show sex appeal, but more a “hint of seriousness”. If I’m reading Jamie correctly, this isn’t your run of the mill blond bombshell like Pamela Anderson, but instead, more of the demure, sensual and soft spoken type that you’d bring home to mom; essentially, Charlize Theron with glasses working the Dewey Decimal System.

Big news in the steep Douro Valley! Symington Family Estates, owners of internationally renowned Port brands Dow’s, Graham’s, and Warre’s is converting their three Vilariça valley vineyards entirely to organic farming. Quinta do Atayde, Quinta de Assares and Quinta da Canada, consisting in total of 146 hectares, or 361 acres, will gain their official “organic” certification in two years time. However, an organic Altano red wine has already been made from the 7 ha fully certified as organic at the Quinta de Assares vineyard in 2007 that is currently in barrel and will be released later this year.

Having read this press release yesterday, what perplexed me was why these 146 hectares were chosen to be organic in their 900 ha. portfolio? What makes the Vilariça valley different? Like any successful business, the valley was chosen on the basis of location. As opposed to their vineyards banking the main Douro valley, the Vilariça valley enjoys colder winters and drier summers, in addition to schistous soils which allow for optimal draining. Couple this with an ideal pH range and balanced mineral nutrition in the soil that naturally produces low-yielding fruit, and you’ve got yourself a perfect spot for organic farming, or so Symington hopes.

Another interesting factoid to note is that Touriga Nacional accounts for only 3% of the total vineyards planted in the Douro Valley. 3%! Considering that this is one of the main grapes in your basic port blend, that statistic is a little shocking. And of that 3%, Symington can boast that Vilariça valley is organically growing 31% of all Touriga Nacional in the Douro. Not a bad marketing angle!

For the record, Touriga Francesa is the most widely planted grape in the …

Last night was one of the first evenings, in quite some time, that we took a big break away from drinking La Rioja wines. Sigh…it felt magical to take a massive step to the right and look adoringly at the bottle of 2005 Quinta do Vale Meão sitting regally alongside my red wine braised pork cheeks and steamed artichokes. And although we’ve had this wine before with Francisco Javier de Olazabal in Oporto last February, it was lovely to have a moment where we could enjoy a Portuguese treasure.

Quinta do Vale Meão has fashioned a remarkable reputation for itself since its inception in 1877. Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira originally bought the 270 hectares of land in the Douro Superior, which were later placed under the massive Sogrape umbrella. Dona Antónia’s great grandson, Francisco Javier de Olazabal, has now taken control of the 65 hectares, which are comprised of various soil types including, granite and alluvial gravel.

The 2005 Quinta do Vale Meão shows gorgeous and dense floral and chocolate notes, a complex and concentrated mouthfeel, and a long, luxurious finish. This is a fantastic wine!

Gabriella

Dark and vibrant blood red, clean in color with an intense radiance. I’m swooning right now, as the nose is just brimming with absolutely beautiful aromas of violet, pure liquid chocolate, anise, tar, wet earth, cinnamon, raw meat, etc. etc. etc. The layers and intricate nuances in the bouquet are so intense and profound that it’s almost impossible to take my nose out of this glass. In the mouth, the wine …