Wines of Portugal. Portuguese wines awarded again.

Portuguese wines awarded in Germany. Of course. And ther is still so much more to taste, descover and  be delighted!

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Wines of Portugal | A world of difference | News article | Portuguese wines awarded in Germany

Douro Museum. Heritage, History and Beauty. Learn... Then go and taste its best!

The Douro Museum can be defined as the Museum of the Douro Territory, as an expression of the cultural identity of the Demarcated Region of Douro, a Community Museum, as it expresses the identity of the Man who built, builds and looks after the landscape of the region and produces wine of highly renowned special features: it is therefore also a Wine Museum.
The Fundação Museu do Douro (Douro Museum Foundation) was established on 23 March 2006 by Decree-Law No. 70/06. It is an institution of private law and a public utility with legal personality.

The Foundation’s purpose is to pursuit cultural activities, including the facilities, maintenance and management of the Museum of the Douro Region, created by Law No. 125/97 of 2 December, and the fulfilment of the duties established in this law.

O Museu do Douro, criado pela Lei 125/97, foi concebido como um museu de território, polivalente e polinuclear, vocacionado para reunir, conservar, identificar e divulgar o vastíssimo património museológico e documental disperso pela região, devendo constituir um instrumento ao serviço do desenvolvimento sociocultural da Região Demarcada do Douro. Numa perspetiva de "museologia de comunidade", o Museu do Douro assume-se como processo cujo desenvolvimento deverá envolver a colaboração ativa com as instituições locais, regionais e internacionais.

A gestão do Museu do Douro é da responsabilidade da Fundação Museu do Douro, criada pelo Dec.-Lei 70/2006, instituindo-a como pessoa coletiva de direito privado e utilidade pública. A Fundação Museu do Douro tem como fim a instalação, manutenção e a gestão do Museu do Douro.

Para atingir a sua missão o Museu do Douro preserva, estuda, expõe e interpreta objetos materiais e imateriais representativos da identidade, da cultura, da história e do desenvolvimento da região do Douro, independentemente da época histórica, de vários tipos e fabricos, com especial incidência nos elementos associados à vitivinicultura, atividade primordial na região.

O Museu do Douro pretende assumir o papel que lhe cabe na formação de valores culturais, em articulação ativa com os demais agentes e instituições, promovendo não só uma função educacional de divulgação e contextualização da cultura e história da região mas, sobretudo, proporcionando experiências capazes de motivar a participação e o envolvimento ativo do público que serve.

by museudodouro.pt, Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto

Portuguese Red Wines Come of Age, Steal Spain’s Thunder

Back in the 1990s Spain seemed to be Europe’s most forward looking wine producer. But as overproduction and high alcohol wines increasingly dominate Spanish viniculture, it now appears Portugal can steal some of its thunder. 
Such an achievement would simply not have been possible 10 years ago. Prior to 1986, when Portugal joined the EU, its wine industry was wracked by political directives and a lack of any dependable system to make sense of its wine regions.

After joining, EU subsidies and investments poured into Portugal for the regeneration of old and the building of new wineries, attracting a young generation of winemakers, including an impressive number of women, who now account for 60 percent of the students at the oenology school in Vila Real.
Today there are 31 DOC and DOP appellations and 14 approved wine regions in Portugal, including the beautiful Douro River Valley, famous for its fortified Port wines.
Indeed, Port’s historic renown has blinded many to the charms of Portugal’s modern red wines, 30 of which, all from the Douro, I got to taste at a recent Wine Media Guild luncheon in New Yourk.

Modestly Priced

My overall impression was that many were so very good and so modestly priced, with some of my favorites retailing at only $10 - $16. In fact, none cost more than $40.
My second surprise was that very few topped 14 percent in alcohol, with most at a reasonable 13.5 or below, indicating that, at least so far, Portuguese winemakers have resisted going for that bold but imbalanced style that plagues international wine markets and destroys any subtleties of individual terroir.
One of my colleagues at the luncheon said he thought too many of the wines tasted very much the same, but I reminded him that all were from the same Douro region and therefore shared identifiable characteristics.

Some of the newer blends -- and Portugal offers a wide palate of grapes to choose among -- include the robust touriga nacional; the late-ripening baga, sometimes used as a base for sparkling wines; the widely planted, zesty castelao; the aromatic touriga franca; the fruity, herbal trincadeira; and the increasingly impressive tinta, in Spain called tempranillo.

Fuzzy Reservas

These were young wines we tasted, and the laws about “reservas” are a bit fuzzy: a reserva must spend at least one year in oak and one in bottle -- rather liberal for a wine that is held back for more maturity -- and a garrafeira must spend three years aging, at least one in bottle, but the rules allow for a good deal of flexibility.

Most of the wines were recent vintages from 2009 and 2010 vintages, with the oldest going back only to 2007. I enjoyed the younger, fresher wines, including a lovely, sweetly juicy and floral Vinho Oscar Quevedo Douro Oscar’s 2009 ($10) that makes for very easy drinking. Sales-wise, Quevado is cutting edge: the producer markets only through its social network.
At $13, the 2009 Quinta dos Murcas Assobio, is a terrific buy, with a remarkably assertive bouquet and fine texture felt from the tip of the tongue to back of the throat. “Assobio” means “whistle,” in homage to the winds in the Douro hills.

Persuasive Blend

The 2009 J. Portugal Ramos Colheita ($20) is a persuasive blend of two touriga varietals plus tinta roriz, with plenty of complexity.
If you want a sense of what a “typical” Portuguese wine tastes like, try the 2009 Quinta de Roriz Prazo de Roriz ($16), which is a little rough around the edges but would be perfect with Portuguese dishes like caldo verde soup, the salt cod dish called bacalhau, or just with a handful of the country’s wonderful roasted chestnuts.

My favorite wine, at just $21, was the PV Mutante 2007, whose age mellowed its tannins and acids, revealing layers of integrated flavors of fruit and woodsyness.

At $30, the curiously-named Twisted Tinto 2009, a blend of the two tourigas, roriz, amarela, and barroca, by Niepoort (one of the finest Port producers) had medium body, a rich, fat quality and plenty of dense fruit flavors, ideal with suckling pig or lamb.

Yet not one of these wines went above 13.5 percent alcohol, while providing real depth of flavour.

by blomberg.com

Discover. Indulge yourself. You worth it. Great Portuguese wines, must try.

Capturing world of great Portuguese wines.. So different. Takes tame to discover, taste and choose the favourite ones.. Sun and beach time or chilly autumn, great celebration or romantic evening or a big dinner  - there are plenty of options in Douro Valley list. Indulge.   

Reds

2007 Quinta do Vallado Douro, $37
Quinta do Vallado produces generous Douro reds, albeit with plenty of perfume and dark, tannic grip. Vallado Douro is a blend of touriga nacional, touriga franca, tinta barroca, tinta roriz and sousão from mostly younger vines. There is trademark Douro ink and floral lift, with a plummy mid-palate and a long, pippy finish.

2007 Quinta do Crasto Reserva douro, $78 
Quinta do Crasto excels with tinta roriz where it forms the basis of its regular and reserve blends, as well as single-varietal bottlings in good years. This is a very big wine by Douro standards, lavishly oaked with lush fruit showing coffee, cinnamon, tar and licorice. There’s some trademark Douro minerality poking through and classy, grippy tannins. One for the cellar.  

2007 Quinta do Vale MeÃo Meandro douro, $49 
Meão’s wines combine textural precision, freshness and generosity from their upper Douro fruit, well reflected in the 2007 Meandro (the name comes from the meandering river that almost encircles the property). A combination of touriga nacional, tinto roriz and touriga franca, this is a medium-bodied wine packed with bright red berries and spicy black fruit. There are flavours of anise, violets and smoked meats.

2007 Quinta do Vale MeÃo Douro, $185
60 per cent touriga nacional, 20 per cent touriga franca, 15 per cent tinta roriz, 5 per cent tinta barroca. Based on these tastings, Meão’s Douro stands alongside Dirk Niepoort’s brace of wines as the benchmark for modern Douro reds. The wine shows a mix of briar, vanilla pod, Asian spices and minerality. The texture is detailed and layered, from low-bass to high-treble notes – tannins and acid in balance, with a satiny sheen.

2007 Niepoort Redoma tinto, $115
All the hallmarks of Niepoort’s fastidious approach to viticulture and winemaking are here. The wine is fine-boned and linear, the structure supporting wild, rustic, dark-berry flavours with mid-palate generosity and a lively, long finish. Savage and restrained at the same time.

Ports
Quinta do Vallado 10 Year Old Tawny port, $75
A fresh and spirity tawny. Light brown colour with notes of spearmint, licorice and cola. Good levels of acidity balance the praline-like sweetness. There is still plenty of primary fruit here. The finish is fresh with a lingering nuttiness.

2007 Niepoort Vintage Port, A$200
A deep purple colour, as is typical of Vintage Ports in their infancy. Despite its youth, it shows freshness and a floral lift with time in the glass. There are notes of menthol, wild herbs, flowers, with a touch of spirit and raisin. The tannin and acid balance is excellent. Great finesse.

2007 Quinta do Vale Meão Vintage Port, $130 
Less restrained than the Niepoort, with velvety exuberance and generosity. There is plenty of acid and freshness to give direction to the burst of fresh fruit. Plummy and layered, with touches of chocolate, violets, anise, bergamot and cloves. Ripe tannins and a long, silky finish. Highly recommended.

by gourmettraveller.com

Douro wines, Portugal. My favourite since very first sip.

info by www.cellartours.com

Port was a historical accident. We all know how English merchants, at the end of the 17th century, ventured deep into the Douro Valley to find wine to send to Britain; how the wine was dark, strong and ropey; and how they learned to add brandy to preserve the fruit in the wine and make it stable enough to survive the sea journey north.

The process, however, wasn't created in a day. Even at the beginning of the 19th century port shippers had yet to learn the precise moment when to add the brandy and it was another generation before port shippers tamed the wild wine, adding fermenting must to about a quarter of the quantity of spirit to stop the fermentation and preserve the sugars in the port. In the meantime occasional pleas were entered for the continued production of Douro table wines. In his History and Description of Modern Wines of 1833, Cyrus Redding asked why 'Englishmen should not have the benefit of the best wines of the Cima do Douro in a pure state, without adventitious mixtures?'. 

Portuguese critics were more ferocious: the novelist Camillo Castelo Branco referred to 

port as a 'killer wine', and the result of 'English bestiality'.

Fortified wine won the day, however, due to the superior quality of those great 19th-century vintages. In the previous century it had been little more than a coarse, alcoholic tipple for rustic whigs who believed that, by drinking Portuguese wines, they were depriving the hated French of their livelihood - akin to drinking Australian wine today, perhaps. The European Union is the godfather of properly made Douro table wine. Portugal's admission to the Club in 1986 provided the incentive to limit port production and foster the making of natural wines, but there had been a revival of interest in table wines in the post-war years and those early pioneers created the models for the Douro table wines of our own time. 
The greatest 'prehistoric' example is, of course, Barca Velha, created in 1952. The wine was the invention of Fernando Nicolau de Almeida, whose job was to make port for Ferreira. Stationed at the Quinta do Vale de Meão he allegedly grew tired of the drinks on offer. 

After visiting Bordeaux he returned with a bee in his bonnet about making a claret-style wine in the Douro Valley. He achieved this by sagely blending wine from the high country with that from the valley floor, and keeping it cool by using huge blocks of ice. For the first time in hundreds of years, a non-fortified Douro wine had been made which would justify the high price demanded for it.

Fernando's son João was the next pioneer. Through his study of the best grape varieties for the valley and the reforms he instigated in the nature of terracing, Duas Quintas was born, a wine which, in its Reserva version, would prove a rival to his father's creation. There were other forerunners besides: Grande Escolha (or 'Grand Selection') from Quinta do Côtto is a near contemporary of Duas Quintas, and in its rather more hot-country, leathery style, it remains one of the Douro's best reds. At Quinta de la Rosa the Bergquists started making table wine in the 1980s. 

Their guru was the Australian, David Baverstock, who designed another great Douro red, the reserve wine from Quinta do Crasto.

From his base in the Alentejo, Baverstock is utterly convinced of the potential for great unfortified wine in the Douro Valley: 'It can rate as the best wine in the world - certainly the best in Portugal.'

But before that can be brought about, a great Douro wine needs the right varieties, altitude, low yields and good vineyards; and the chief impediment to progress is port: if there were no port, there would be a great many more quality grapes to play with. Baverstock is not alone in his view. Frenchman Pascal Châtonnet makes the wines at Quinta do Portal (once Quinta do Confradeiro). 'Like Dirk van der Niepoort, Châtonnet maintains that you can't use the same grapes for the two wines and so no one has yet been able to measure precisely how good Douro table wines could be: 'Port wine vineyards are made up of many different grape varieties, unmixed plots are rare.'

Another problem is the beneficios system, which limits port production to three tons per hectare, setting aside any extra yield for table wines. Not only does this reinforce the view that table wine comes second and should use up leftovers, it also prevents producers from looking at the land seriously to decide which plots would best suit table wines and which would be better limited to port production. Niepoort, for one, is adamant about this. For him there are only a handful of people who examine the various terroirs of the Douro to work out what sort of wines they should be making: he names Bruce Guimaraens, until 1994 winemaker at Taylor-Fonseca, and Johnny Graham of Churchill. It is significant that Niepoort, Graham and Guimaraens all represent firms where the chief vocation has been to make port. Table wine is, after all, in its infancy. 

Almost all port companies make table wines now, but there is still resistance to the idea of using the best grapes on the part of the old port firms and Taylor's, for example, still won't countenance the idea of making non-fortified wine at all, even if Fonseca makes a little white, sold only in Portugal.

Very exciting has been the recent appearance of Chryseia - Symingtons' collaboration with Bruno Prats of Bordeaux. This is a serious wine which tilts at the very top of the market. It doesn't wish to be sweet and porty and shuns the leathery aromas that predominate elsewhere. It leans towards a Bordelais notion of elegance, but is richer and fuller than any of Châtonnet's wines. 

There are plenty of Douro wines to choose from now and some are very exciting indeed. A serious list would have to take in not only the examples named above, but also Niepoort's Charme and Battuta, Quanta da Pacheca, Quinta do Vale de Meão, Barca Velha's present base, Evel Grande Escolha, Vinha do Fôjo, Quinta da Covelos and the new reserve wine from Quinta do Vallado.

Discover. See. Taste! 

Vintage Porto in Portugal.

@Guardian

With its 14th-century walls, bell tower and ornate tiles, there is much to see in Porto. But as our writer finds on a weekend break, there's one really good reason to visit Porto- the city, with the Clérigos tower on the skyline; azulejos in the train station at Pinhão; and grape pickers in the Douro Valley.

Be warned: stopping for a sandwich in Porto might floor you for the rest of the afternoon, at least if you tuck into the local speciality, a Francesinha – generous amounts of steak and cured ham stuffed between slices of toast, swathed in a mass of melted cheese and then doused with a boozy tomato sauce, with chips and beer optional but recommended.
On the bright side for the health conscious, there's plenty of chance to walk it off in Porto's vertiginous streets, which rise up from the banks of the Douro river in a jumble of winding paths, broad avenues and shady squares.
And multiple opportunities to stop and stare: at the 20,000 blue-and-white tiles (azulejos) depicting scenes from Portuguese history in the São Bento railway station; at the iron facades that adorn countless shops and restaurants, and which will, our guide assures us, survive the city's gradual modernisation; at the city's magnificent Romanesque cathedral; at the famous and wonderfully preserved Lello bookshop, in which a diminutive cart distributes stock on a shopfloor railway.
If you get lost, navigate by the tall bell tower of the Clérigos church, visible from virtually everywhere in the city; or by the surviving sections of the 14th-century Fernandine defensive walls, hewn out of the granite on and out of which Porto is built.

Chances are, though, that these and other attractions – the vast glass-and-steel Casa da Música designed by Rem Koolhas the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in its beautifully landscaped gardens – are not the first things that spring to mind when you think of Porto.

Today hoteliers and restaurateurs are keen to expand by drawing attention to Porto as a breath-of-fresh-air alternative to other European city-break destinations, such as Barcelona, Berlin and Amsterdam. For the first two nights, we stay in the palatial Yeatman hotel, which sits overlooking the Douro from the Vila Nova de Gaia region on the south side of the river. Barely a year old, the hotel is the brainchild and pet project of Adrian Bridge, the managing director of Taylor's, and although port and wine are central to its aesthetic – from the decanter-shaped swimming pool to the Caudalie Vinothérapie treatments in the vast spa – he is keen to make sure Porto no longer hides its light under a bushel.

For the fairly well-heeled traveller, the Yeatman is a luxurious and comfortable base, all hushed corridors you could drive a car down and impeccable service; right next to the byzantine network of narrow roads that connect the city's long established port-wine cellars and a short hop over one of Porto's six river bridges to the bustling north side. Those who prefer to stay right in the heart of town might try the Teatro, a more modern (and modestly priced) hotel that takes its design inspiration from the theatre that stood on the site in the 19th century.

Going upscale again, there's the five-star, almost implausibly beautiful Infante Sagres, where the likes of Bob Dylan and the Dalai Lama have stayed. We don't bunk in with them, but the hotel has recently opened a brasserie-style restaurant called Book, and we enjoy a delicious dinner there.

We also visit a couple of posher establishments that seem to fall in with the image of the hip new Porto currently being promoted.

They are fine, but it seems to both of us that they offer the kind of food and atmosphere not hard to find in most European capitals; self-consciously refined, artfully presented, comparatively expensive. But the one culinary experience not to miss is eating barbecued sardines in the harbour district of Matosinhos, a short drive from the city centre. Follow the smoke and head for the Rua Heróis de França, where you can take your pick from a lengthy row of plainly decorated restaurants, each with an outsized pavement grill and bursting with people – all piscine life is on the menu, but the sardines, newly caught and whacked on the barbecue with nothing but salt, are sensational (and unfeasibly cheap).

Porto's enthusiasts are right to point out that there's far more to the city than its most famous product but you'd be unwise not to pay it some attention. Sit on the banks of the river and sip it in its white, pink, ruby, tawny and late-bottled vintage incarnations, looking idly at the rabelo boats that are now a tourist attraction but were traditionally used to transport casks of the stuff down river from the Douro Valley.

And, if you're here for more than a couple of days, don't miss out on the chance to head further inland to the small towns and never-ending vineyards of the Douro itself, less than a couple of hours away by car and also reachable by train to Régua or Pinhão, or by river cruise. We drive and experience proper dropped jaws when we turn off the motorway and arrive at the first viewing point: from high up, all you can see is a vast expanse of broad river and enough grapes, it seems, to keep the world drunk for ever.

In 24 hours, we manage to lunch on roast kid at Régua's splendid Castas e Pratos restaurant, visit the Douro museum, relax in the cool luxury of the Aquapura spa hotel and sample the wares of no fewer than four different quintas (including the Quinta do Seixo, owned by Sandeman, where, somewhat comically, we are shown around by a man in the trademark black hat and cape). At one, the family-owned Quinta da Pacheca, we taste the delicious wines and port so comprehensively that a cooling swim and a short nap are required before dinner (after which, of course, more port).

We're certainly not up to the grape-treading that you can participate in at some of the smaller quintas – although most grape-crushing is now mechanised, traditional methods are still to be found. Spittoons are not much in evidence and so a word of caution: unless you are teetotal and have nerves of steel, consider enlisting the services of a driver to take you on quinta visits: when we visit, during the September harvest, the fairly challenging roads are further complicated by the constant traffic of grape trucks.

By the end, we feel we know more about port wine than had imagined possible: that its grapes grow so well here because of the schist soil that regulates night-time temperatures; that one of its greatest producers was a woman named Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira; and that the little chapels that dot the riverside sprang up to bless the rabelo boatmen who might come a cropper in its treacherous shallows. I also realise that I will come back – here and to Porto – again and again, and that its champions are right to think it can give other short-haul destinations a run for their money.