SO MUCH MORE THAN PORT – the best of Portuguese Wine
When I speak of Portuguese wine to my friends, the first wine that comes to mind is Port. While the Portugal’s famous fortified wine is indeed excellent, the country’s incredible wine regions and the great wine they produce deserve just as much of a share of Port’s limelight.
PORTUGAL: AN INCREDIBLE WINE REGION
Portugal’s often called the Western Europe’s final frontier of wine for good reason. Portugal’s wine culture developed relatively independent from the rest of the world, and produced grape varieties seldom seen elsewhere. This means that you’ll be drinking wines often unique to Portugal, like the Alvarinho, Baga, and the Ramisco, with flavour profiles that will surprise and delight the unfamiliar drinker.
Additionally, while the varietals themselves are important, you’ll also want to keep an eye out for the various wine regions of Portugal. Like Champagne and Burgundy, these regions have their own vinicultural characteristics that contribute to the quality of your wine, through its terroir and climate.
PORTUGUESE WINE REGIONS
Vinho Verde – An excellent entrant to Portuguese wines is those from Vinho Verde. Its lively and bright white wines are known for being an incredibly refreshing pair to seafood dishes and are often best served young. A common varietal to look out for is the Alvarinho, a green-skinned grape that produces well-textured and crisp wine with notes of white peach, bright citrus, as well as a mineralogy that perfectly complements seafood. At SPRMRKT, you can try a light orange wine – the Contacto Alvarinho – that has steeped in its grape skins, producing a richer, more complex cousin of the traditionally produced Alvarinho.
Dão – A region known to wine collectors for producing bottles of quality that age incredibly well. The secret lies in the region’s granite soil, which affords the wines mineralogy, structure, and firm tannins that withstand and flourish with age. The Dão Jaen is a full-bodied red with notes of black fruit and a demanding acidity and tannic structure, making it an excellent wine to pair with food. The Maias Red we carry is a vegan red blend with the Jaen as its main varietal, keeping the Jaen’s refreshing acidity, but augmenting it with notes of crème de cassis and savoury dried herbs.
Bairrada – The region with Portugal’s highest wine classification, the D.O.C. (Denominação de Origem Controlada), Bairrada popularity has surged astronomically over the years. The narrow coastal region has a mild maritime climate and abundant rainfall that produces a highly acidic and highly tannic grapes like the Baga, which is known as the Pinot Noir of Portugal. If you speak to a Portuguese person, they’ll insist the Pinot Noir is the French version of the Baga.
Our own Baga Natural Red is a natural wine with lots of character. A spicy bouquet with deep ruby-violet colour, this smooth wine draws you in with its notes of violet and cherry, as well as savoury mushrooms and earthy leather.
Alentejo – One of the most famous wine regions in Portugal, the region is named for its proximity to the Tejo river and is strikingly similar to California. As a large region, it’s hard to define broadly, but its generally known for its gentle topography that shields it from the cooling effects of the Atlantic currents. They’re famed for rich, easy-drinking red wines and medium to full-bodied white wines. At the restaurant, we carry the A Laranja Mecanica (A Clockwork Orange), an orange wine steeped in its grape skins for a week, affording it a honey-colour and notes of candied orange and quince. We also offer an incredible red, the Indigena Organic, an organically-produced wine with a concentrated ruby hue and bight eucalyptus notes. Its structure, concentration, and acidity will also allow it to age very well in its bottle.
