Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
After the week in Paris, we spent a week in Oporto, Portugal’s second largest city, and another possible place for us to move. Perhaps many of you have little interest in Portugal, so upfront is an executive summary, then our diaristic narrative, with some pictures.
Portugal remains a backwater in terms of natural wine, even organic/biodynamic wine. The successful wines, from the so-called Douro Boys and others, are triumphs of marketing. Almost all are acidified in most vintages, especially those from the very hot Douro slopes and the Alentejo.
Vinho Verde is not respected as a category, but there are delicious wines to be had, both white and red, from this cooler region of northern Portugal, at very low prices.
We visited Quinta do Infantado, the port house imported by Louis/Dressner, and talked at length with João Roseira, aka João Rosé, legendary in the annals of WD for his cameo appearances in early Coad chronicles. João was outspoken and candid (see below). I was not aware that Infantado also make red table wine, so it was instructive to taste some of that. Table wine was very welcome because I am generally not fond of anything above 14%, except in homeopathic doses.
Portugal makes a considerable variety of cheeses and charcuterie, and has excellent restaurants, many specializing in fresh seafood. Portugal is comparatively cheap, and eating out is inexpensive, especially if you avoid the hyped wines. People are super nice. Tourism is on the rise, and Oporto is experiencing a kind of revival as a destination. The Douro valley is a two-hour drive away, and is breathtakingly beautiful.
First night in Oporto, dinner at Airbnb, October 10
2014 Julien Meyer Nature Alsace 11.8%
Blend of Sylvaner and Pinot Blanc. Fruity and mineral, ripe peach, green grapes. Good weight and balance. Pleasant glou glou white.
Lunch at Cafeína on October 11 this restaurant introduced high end inventive cuisine in the city twenty years ago, and is still going strong, despite the uninteresting wine list. We loved the food, perhaps more than anywhere else during our two weeks abroad.
2013 Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Contacto Vinho Verde 13.0%
Attractive floral aroma, tasty, though slightly acid deficient for a Vinho Verde. Good body.
2010 Luis Pato Beiras Vinhas Velhas 13.0%
100% Baga. Smells lactic and modern, with salient oak, and herbs. Decent acidity, possibly added, making for good balance. Tastier than I would like to admit, despite the oak.
Dinner at Airbnb on October 11
A second bottle of 2014 Julien Meyer Nature Alsace 11.8%, same as the first.
Dinner at Airbnb on October 12
NV (2014) Mercearia das Flores Vale dos Coelhos 11.0%
A bottle of “organic” house wine from the only organic food market we found in Oporto. Cost something like 8 Euro. Attractive aroma, white flowers and minerality. Excellent acidity and balance. Fit the Vinho Verde mold very well (no origin is stated), and was one of the most delicious local wines we drank.
Lunch at O Rápido on October 13
Delicious lunch at an unpretentious restaurant in downtown Oporto frequented by locals. They had just received a shipment of their 2015 house wine, a red Vinho Verde that was sparkling with CO2 and quaffable deliciousness. Like a Beaujolais Nouveau without the carbonic. Really nice, and the carafe cost something like 3 Euro.
Dinner at Touperinho on October 14
A fancier seafood restaurant in the up and coming Matosinhos district of Oporto, with excellent food and decent prices, despite the affluence (in both senses) of tourists.
2014 Quinta da Covela Avesso Edição Nacional Vinho Verde 12.5%
100% Avesso, another new variety (and varietal) for me. Tasty and inexpensive (15 Euro on the restaurant wine list), this is the first Vinho Verde made by Covela, one of the more organically attuned producers in Portugal, purchased by some Brazilian millionaire a few years ago.
2010 Encosta do Xisto Vinho Verde Tinto 12.0%
100% Vinhão. This was a real treat, since it is rare to find aged red Vinho Verde. Lovely leather (Chinon-like) gave it more distinction than the usual exuberant fruitiness, and the mouthfeel was lovely, with the usual CO2 mixed with good body. The tastiest red Vinho Verde ever, in my limited experience. 11 Euro on the wine list.
Visit and lunch at Quinta do Infantado on October 15
João Roseira invited us to lunch at the winery, always welcome after a two-hour drive. He started by giving us a bit of history on the winery, one of the oldest in Portugal, and the first to bottle under its own name in the Douro Valley (instead of by the négociants/merchants in Oporto). Among the more interesting things we learned:
Nobody treads everything by foot anymore because the treaders are subject to fatigue, the results are uneven, the time it takes to tread large quantities can be dangerous to the musts, etc. What treading is done is mostly for show, and is later finished off mechanically. A few years ago, Infantado designed a mechanical treader that has six metal feet and simulate the action of humans. They had it built by a local machine tool manufacturer:
João says there is a limit to how much Port each house can make, a strategy enforced by the authorities to sustain prices, so the Port wineries have to make Douro table wine with the leftover grapes. It can either be sold wholesale for uneconomically low prices or labeled under the house name. Methinks there is an incentive to market this (usually acidified) table wine as something special (enter the Douro Boys & imitators) to lovers of bombs.
Twelve of Infantado’s 44 hectares are organically farmed, and the two wines made from these grapes (one Douro red table wine and one Port) have green labels. In 1990, they made the first Porto in Portugal from organic grapes.
Almost all Douro wines need to be acidified because the soils is mainly schist. The sun makes the schist very hot, and it retains heat in the night. The vine uses up the acid in self-defense, so that in almost every year all the wineries have to acidify. 2008, a cool year, was the only recent vintage in which João says he did not have to acidify.
Portugal is still very backward as far organic viticulture and the use of herbicides. In part, this is due to the very difficult terrain. They always use native yeasts, except in 2014, when harvest conditions were so bad that they had to inoculate.
All the wines are aged in oak containers of different sizes and ages; João showed me some that were over a hundred years old. He says he is not radical about oak or anything else, has no problem using new oak as the need arises for new barrels, and believes, contrary to everything I’ve heard, that oak barrels continue to breathe and impart oak flavor after the first few uses, even the centenary ones. When I expressed skepticism, he said this might be different in the case of Port because of the much higher alcohol content.
At lunch, with salad, sardines, homemade bread and delicious tomatoes from the winery’s orchard:
2010 Quinta do Infantado Douro (Green Label) 12.5%
A blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz, made from organic grapes. The alcohol is lower because the organic grapes are grown on soil that, atypically, is not schist, and the exposure is ‘not as good’ (i.e., less direct sunlight). Still, it smells to me like Port (perhaps because of the varieties, or their blend), and the mouthfeel is on the rich and opulent side. The acidity is quite good, and seems integrated, though some had to be added.
2012 Quinta do Infantado Douro (White Label) 13.5%
Bottled in July. Same blend, but made from regular (not organic) grapes. Also smells like Port. Mouthfeel and acidity very similar to the preceding. To my surprise, I find myself liking these quite a bit, even though I usually shun the opulent.
2004 Quinta do Infantado (White Label) alcohol not noted
Attractive aroma, blackberries and herbs. Succulent and dense. Quite easy to drink, like a Port that one can drink more than a bit without collapsing. Good stuff.
Dinner at Airbnb on October 15
2014 Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Contacto Vinho Verde 13.0%
Similar to the 2013, but fresher, with more satisfying acidity.
On October 16, we visited the excellent zoo they have in Gaia, across the Douro from Oporto, where one can get really close to the lions:
We saw some amazing zebra, with camouflage reminiscent of WWI dazzle battleships:
On October 16, dinner at Gaveto, an excellent seafood restaurant with an extensive wine list. We got to try something rather odd called a Percebes (goose barnacle in English), native to Iberian shores:
2012 Soalheiro Alvarinho Primeiras Vinhas Vinho Verde 13.0%
A more serious expression of white Vinho Verde, with mango and persimmon aromas, excellent acidity and balance.
2008 Buçaco Branco 13.0%
One of Portugal’s classic whites, a private label from the storied Buçaco Palace Hotel. Made from three varieties grown in undisclosed locations in Bairrada and Dão. Lovely fruit and honeysuckle aroma buried in oak vanilla. A shame. Trying to become the Portuguese Coche?
2014 Aguião Vinho Verde Tinto 11.0%
This wine got me turned onto red Vinho Verde after sipping an earlier vintage at a Savio Soares trade tasting in New York in April of 2013. Gooseberry, leather, iodine, the usual CO2. A barrelful of monkeys, and the perfect summer red. Drunk in a malga, the vessel of choice for Portuguese old-timers:
All in all a very pleasant week, and a highly recommended destination for intrepid food & wine explorers.
Portugal remains a backwater in terms of natural wine, even organic/biodynamic wine. The successful wines, from the so-called Douro Boys and others, are triumphs of marketing. Almost all are acidified in most vintages, especially those from the very hot Douro slopes and the Alentejo.
Vinho Verde is not respected as a category, but there are delicious wines to be had, both white and red, from this cooler region of northern Portugal, at very low prices.
We visited Quinta do Infantado, the port house imported by Louis/Dressner, and talked at length with João Roseira, aka João Rosé, legendary in the annals of WD for his cameo appearances in early Coad chronicles. João was outspoken and candid (see below). I was not aware that Infantado also make red table wine, so it was instructive to taste some of that. Table wine was very welcome because I am generally not fond of anything above 14%, except in homeopathic doses.
Portugal makes a considerable variety of cheeses and charcuterie, and has excellent restaurants, many specializing in fresh seafood. Portugal is comparatively cheap, and eating out is inexpensive, especially if you avoid the hyped wines. People are super nice. Tourism is on the rise, and Oporto is experiencing a kind of revival as a destination. The Douro valley is a two-hour drive away, and is breathtakingly beautiful.
First night in Oporto, dinner at Airbnb, October 10
2014 Julien Meyer Nature Alsace 11.8%
Blend of Sylvaner and Pinot Blanc. Fruity and mineral, ripe peach, green grapes. Good weight and balance. Pleasant glou glou white.
Lunch at Cafeína on October 11 this restaurant introduced high end inventive cuisine in the city twenty years ago, and is still going strong, despite the uninteresting wine list. We loved the food, perhaps more than anywhere else during our two weeks abroad.
2013 Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Contacto Vinho Verde 13.0%
Attractive floral aroma, tasty, though slightly acid deficient for a Vinho Verde. Good body.
2010 Luis Pato Beiras Vinhas Velhas 13.0%
100% Baga. Smells lactic and modern, with salient oak, and herbs. Decent acidity, possibly added, making for good balance. Tastier than I would like to admit, despite the oak.
Dinner at Airbnb on October 11
A second bottle of 2014 Julien Meyer Nature Alsace 11.8%, same as the first.
Dinner at Airbnb on October 12
NV (2014) Mercearia das Flores Vale dos Coelhos 11.0%
A bottle of “organic” house wine from the only organic food market we found in Oporto. Cost something like 8 Euro. Attractive aroma, white flowers and minerality. Excellent acidity and balance. Fit the Vinho Verde mold very well (no origin is stated), and was one of the most delicious local wines we drank.
Lunch at O Rápido on October 13
Delicious lunch at an unpretentious restaurant in downtown Oporto frequented by locals. They had just received a shipment of their 2015 house wine, a red Vinho Verde that was sparkling with CO2 and quaffable deliciousness. Like a Beaujolais Nouveau without the carbonic. Really nice, and the carafe cost something like 3 Euro.
Dinner at Touperinho on October 14
A fancier seafood restaurant in the up and coming Matosinhos district of Oporto, with excellent food and decent prices, despite the affluence (in both senses) of tourists.
2014 Quinta da Covela Avesso Edição Nacional Vinho Verde 12.5%
100% Avesso, another new variety (and varietal) for me. Tasty and inexpensive (15 Euro on the restaurant wine list), this is the first Vinho Verde made by Covela, one of the more organically attuned producers in Portugal, purchased by some Brazilian millionaire a few years ago.
2010 Encosta do Xisto Vinho Verde Tinto 12.0%
100% Vinhão. This was a real treat, since it is rare to find aged red Vinho Verde. Lovely leather (Chinon-like) gave it more distinction than the usual exuberant fruitiness, and the mouthfeel was lovely, with the usual CO2 mixed with good body. The tastiest red Vinho Verde ever, in my limited experience. 11 Euro on the wine list.
Visit and lunch at Quinta do Infantado on October 15
João Roseira invited us to lunch at the winery, always welcome after a two-hour drive. He started by giving us a bit of history on the winery, one of the oldest in Portugal, and the first to bottle under its own name in the Douro Valley (instead of by the négociants/merchants in Oporto). Among the more interesting things we learned:
Nobody treads everything by foot anymore because the treaders are subject to fatigue, the results are uneven, the time it takes to tread large quantities can be dangerous to the musts, etc. What treading is done is mostly for show, and is later finished off mechanically. A few years ago, Infantado designed a mechanical treader that has six metal feet and simulate the action of humans. They had it built by a local machine tool manufacturer:
Twelve of Infantado’s 44 hectares are organically farmed, and the two wines made from these grapes (one Douro red table wine and one Port) have green labels. In 1990, they made the first Porto in Portugal from organic grapes.
Almost all Douro wines need to be acidified because the soils is mainly schist. The sun makes the schist very hot, and it retains heat in the night. The vine uses up the acid in self-defense, so that in almost every year all the wineries have to acidify. 2008, a cool year, was the only recent vintage in which João says he did not have to acidify.
Portugal is still very backward as far organic viticulture and the use of herbicides. In part, this is due to the very difficult terrain. They always use native yeasts, except in 2014, when harvest conditions were so bad that they had to inoculate.
All the wines are aged in oak containers of different sizes and ages; João showed me some that were over a hundred years old. He says he is not radical about oak or anything else, has no problem using new oak as the need arises for new barrels, and believes, contrary to everything I’ve heard, that oak barrels continue to breathe and impart oak flavor after the first few uses, even the centenary ones. When I expressed skepticism, he said this might be different in the case of Port because of the much higher alcohol content.
At lunch, with salad, sardines, homemade bread and delicious tomatoes from the winery’s orchard:
2010 Quinta do Infantado Douro (Green Label) 12.5%
A blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz, made from organic grapes. The alcohol is lower because the organic grapes are grown on soil that, atypically, is not schist, and the exposure is ‘not as good’ (i.e., less direct sunlight). Still, it smells to me like Port (perhaps because of the varieties, or their blend), and the mouthfeel is on the rich and opulent side. The acidity is quite good, and seems integrated, though some had to be added.
2012 Quinta do Infantado Douro (White Label) 13.5%
Bottled in July. Same blend, but made from regular (not organic) grapes. Also smells like Port. Mouthfeel and acidity very similar to the preceding. To my surprise, I find myself liking these quite a bit, even though I usually shun the opulent.
2004 Quinta do Infantado (White Label) alcohol not noted
Attractive aroma, blackberries and herbs. Succulent and dense. Quite easy to drink, like a Port that one can drink more than a bit without collapsing. Good stuff.
Dinner at Airbnb on October 15
2014 Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Contacto Vinho Verde 13.0%
Similar to the 2013, but fresher, with more satisfying acidity.
On October 16, we visited the excellent zoo they have in Gaia, across the Douro from Oporto, where one can get really close to the lions:
A more serious expression of white Vinho Verde, with mango and persimmon aromas, excellent acidity and balance.
2008 Buçaco Branco 13.0%
One of Portugal’s classic whites, a private label from the storied Buçaco Palace Hotel. Made from three varieties grown in undisclosed locations in Bairrada and Dão. Lovely fruit and honeysuckle aroma buried in oak vanilla. A shame. Trying to become the Portuguese Coche?
2014 Aguião Vinho Verde Tinto 11.0%
This wine got me turned onto red Vinho Verde after sipping an earlier vintage at a Savio Soares trade tasting in New York in April of 2013. Gooseberry, leather, iodine, the usual CO2. A barrelful of monkeys, and the perfect summer red. Drunk in a malga, the vessel of choice for Portuguese old-timers: