Another Portuguese Tasting

Every year for the last few around this time I attend a tasting of products run by an enterprising company named after one of the great oceans of this world - Atlantico - which tends to feature some fine Portuguese wines and some interesting, often exceptional, Portuguese delicacies. An ex business partner of mine (we jointly created a company called Wineforce many years ago, then went our separate ways as often happens) is somehow involved with the firm - I know not in what precise capacity - so it's fun to see him working away and to taste the company's wares.

The Portuguese seriously love their food and wine but they are low-key people so there is little boasting here, unlike their southern European counterparts, but often their products speak for themselves. I worked for over ten years with Portuguese wines and encountered many top producers, mainly modest to a fault and extremely dedicated to their product; they can now shine, having upgraded their technology and approach, so produce individual, delightful wines at many price points.

Wine producers everywhere tend to be - sweeping generalisation alert!!! - kind, passionate individuals who love their industry and those involved in it, who are proud of their products and keen to show and share them, and to learn more. The growers I was privileged to work with were all very good, passionate people involved in a business they loved and intent on producing the most interesting wine they could; to say I enjoyed working with them is a massive understatement.

Atlantico have a decent wine range that contains a few real gems, including the superb red wines from Cartuxa in the Alentejo, the lovely range of wines and port from one of the pioneers of the Portuguese wine revolution (Quinta da Pacheca from the Douro) and the individual range of wines made by the passionate Domingos Alves de Sousa and his family. There were also some proper 'Green Wines' (Vinhos Verdes) on show, light and attractive as they are (I am referring to the whites, the reds are an acquired taste, perhaps interesting but rarely entirely pleasurable)
, though they seemed to have upped the alcohol level a bit, perhaps acceding to market demands.

Many years ago I used to represent Quinta da Pacheca in the UK and we had some, rather limited, success with their range of table wines - at the time they sold all their port in bulk to the big shippers, so we were only able to try some as a curiosity. Well now they bottle and market their own port, and pretty glorious it is too; despite the aged tawnies being my favourites (fabulous, unctuous, seductive wines of great character and complexity, still relatively modestly priced) their rubies are also a force to be reckoned with, being far more complex at junior level than those their better-known competitors. The wines are now made by Maria, the grand-daughter of Eduardo Serpa Pimentel who first bottled the wine there and established it as a force to be reckoned with. On this showing he would have been impressed, pleased and proud of what Maria is now achieving with his beloved vines. Their table wines (everyday and premium) are also notable, clean and well made, show excellent local character, class and are well worth the price - seek them out, all of them!

As I've written before, Domingos Alves de Sousa of Quinta da Gaivosa is a force to be reckoned with, making interesting wines of individual character based, liked Quinta da Pacheca, in the Douro valley. He presents his wines and ports - a good combination of modern techniques and old-fashioned character - with fierce pride but endearing modesty and great charm that sums up the best people of the great world of good wine. What his wines lack in subtlety they gain in character, being big and complex at the same time, unlike many chunky but clunky 'New World' wines. The Alves de Sousa wines are a true labour of love, born of respect for the conditions and the raw materials and not formulated according to marketing needs and wants. That is not to say that they will be unappealing in the marketplace, far from it; they are just made the right way around - great products that will make great brands, as it should be! Alas I have not been able to gather enough information in time to allow me the long-promised dedicated post, but maybe soon...


I also tasted two wines called blog (see photo) which for obvious reasons are close to my heart. Not so obvious to the naked eye is that they come from the Alentejo, literally the area beyond the river Teju (Tagus) and south of Lisbon, where the Portuguese say their dimmest compatriots reside - I was told that a famous saying of the Alentejo is 'If it rains in November, Christmas will be in December'. In reality it is an area of rolling, fertile, green countryside with some of the country's most beautiful and picturesque towns; it also is home to some outstanding wines, primarily red. The blog wines, made near Estremoz, continue this tradition with two big red stunners (other than the bottle they vary slightly in the types of grapes used) full of ripe fruit and plenty of alcohol. With the finesse that will come from maturity and experience these could be very good indeed.

I have mentioned the Portuguese specialty hams and charcuterie before and I will say it again - they are producing outstanding stuff and, without the 'big name' power of the Spaniards and the Italians, they are more more attractively priced. The ranges I tasted (repeatedly, I might shamefacedly add...) from producers in both the north and south of the country were quite superb in both taste and texture, well worth pursuing (more details on Atlantico UK's website). This is another range of Portuguese products that will give you better 'bang for your buck' than most competitors and I can recommend buying and consuming them without hesitation.

The cheeses I was less taken with. They are perfectly decent, well-made things and are even occasionally interesting, even exciting if you are eating them with knowledgeable Portuguese friends in Portugal. In London, with cheese on offer from around the world they are less attractive to a non-Portuguese - as a rule interesting to taste but not exciting to seek out.

The dried and salted cod (bacalhau) is an interesting product whose culinary treatment in Portugal is an art form, with hundreds of different recipes in existence. The simple bolinhos de bacalhau (fried codfish cakes) can be exquisite, and there were some good ones here, but as the subject of bacalhau is so vast I would like to do a separate post one of these days, maybe soon.

Should I be privileged to visit the Atlantico tasting next year hopefully I will get a chance to focus a bit more on the food side of things, or maybe look at wine and food separately. I will also take care not to lose some of my photographs, ending up with almost all from a single producer...oooops. Be patient, my poor reader, and kind!