Favourite Portuguese wine and corks

 These were the two favourite Portuguese wines out of 10 from the Tejo region presented to the Central London Wine Society.

Both were my favourites. I am a fan of sweet and off dry wines. Remember the days of Mateus Rose, a great hit with the British. Another  previous favourite from Portugal was Port.

Obelisco means obelisk. Obelisco wine from Portugal, not to be confused with the American Obelisco.

Obelisco, Frisante Gasificado, Rose, Adega de Almeirem NV (non vintage, ie no year of production bottling), 10.5% alcohol which is not too strong. 50% Aragonez (also called Tempranillo), mixed with 50% Castelao.

We tried the white. They also sell a rose.

Even better, in the opinion of myself and the group, was the Bridao, late harvest, Adega Cooperative do Cartaxo 2022, DOC Tejo, 13%, grape variety Fernao Pires, Arinto. Sweet, but not over-sweet. 

Useful Websites

https://adegaalmeirim.pt/en/store/obelisco-1-white/

The Best Sweet Riesling From Corney & Barrow

I love sweet wines. I like muscat grapes, dessert wines, cocktails such as vodka and orange and Baileys. I enjoy Prosecco and cava and Champagne as an aperitif. Most reds are strong and dry and bore me, so I am always looking for a medium sweet, a sweet, a sparkling a pink wine.

I was in heaven when I went to a wine tasting hosted by Corney and Barrow. First the venue is a delight, and easy to find. It's a hidden gem. We walked from crowded Liverpool Street station, which has McDonalds, a Caffe Nero with no toilet, and a large Wetherspoons pub (later you can read my previous post on the station). From the busy street outside we disappeared into a pedestrian alley, into a tree lined square with a view of the Gherkin, then through lanterns bordering the stairs with heaters overhead which looked like torches, reminiscent of a Roman stage set.

In the secluded, elegant candle-lit darkness was the Corney and Barrow Restaurant. Beyond that the private room with four wines. At the start was a table of Rieslings from 2015, only a year ago, the new wines, and already Corney and Barrow are running out of their allocation.

I'd had Riesling before. I have studied about 20 hours and then a day at WSET (Wine and Spirit Eduction Trust) taking the level one exam which is roughly equivalent to an NVQ (vocational qualification for people serving wines in shops or restaurants). My husband has taken levels two and three and is studying for the diploma which consists of about nine exams taken over two years or longer. So I am forever hearing, "You can smell the petrol in Riesling".

In the Sixties and Seventies, like the rest of the British wining and dining world, I was into sweet wines and drank Mateus Rose, Black Tower, and had no idea of any regions nor any grapes.

Later, it must be the case that most of the Rieslings I have tasted in my short knowledgeable era of wine tasting have come from Alsace. I have now, thanks to Corney and Barrow, discovered the Rieslings from the Mosel region. I am told that the Mosel region consists of blue slate banks on three rivers, and the region was known by the names of the three rivers and areas, until somebody decided to simplify the name to make it more memorable. So now the region and the wine growing area are called simply Mosel.

I must have tried a dozen wines, started with the driest ending with the sweetest, and every one of them was delicious. Just to see whether I was simply in a good mood, I went over to the other three sets of wines, dry reds. Did I like all of them? No. Not one of them.

I was most interested to hear about wines grown on the side of Mount Etna. Fascinating.

However, if I had to choose a wine to drink or buy it would now be a Riesling from the Mosel.
Corner and Barrow have several restaurants and attached bars with extensive wine lists. You can also buy wine from them. They have offices in London, other parts of England, Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Singapore. You can also find them on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.
www.candbscene.co.uk is their blog.
www.corneyandbarrow.com
More about the restaurant and bar in my next post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Lambrusco wine: what is it and where d'you get it?

Lambrusco is both a grape and a wine, made mainly from that grape. Lambrusco wine from Italy is found at Italian restaurants in the UK and many Uk supermarkets as well as in Italy and Italian restaurants worldwide.

Lambrusco was originally a dry red wine from the region of Italy where you get a lot of preserved pork meat, Parma ham from the city of Parma (I once went on a travel press trip sponsored by the factory and was taken on a tour). The Parmesan cheese is also from this region. Also salami. These strong meats and dark coloured meats go well with dark red wine which is slightly acidic which cuts through the fat of the meat in your mouth.

Lambrusco was exported to England as in addition a pink or rose colour wine, often sweetened with sparkle added. The Brits are famous for their sweet tooth. In the Sixties and Seventies sweetened Mateus Rose from Portugal was also sent to Britain and was very popular.

Now you can still get red, white or rose coloured and still or slightly sparkling Lambrusco wine in supermarkets and on many menus. Because the wine was produced in large quantity, sweeter and sparkling for the mass market, those wanting dry dark red, expensive wines tend to reject it and instead go for something recherché.

Not me. Sorry, I am with the majority, especially of women wine drinkers, and still young at heart and watching my wine budget. I am very glad if that makes Lambrusco more available as sweet, pink, sparkling wine at a good price, as well as Lambrusco red and Lambrusco white.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambrusco

Angela Lansbury

Port, Portugal & Portuguese Wine Labels including Mateus rose

Port is 20 per cent alcohol, a fortified wine, so it tastes sharp on the back of the throat like whisky.

Port is made from blends of grapes.

You keep the best a long time.

Ruby port, (dark red port, aged in the bottle)
then reserve,
then special reserve,
then LBV late bottled vintage,
then Vintage (very old).

Tawny port spends a long time in a barrel, decades, darker colour from the barrel.

Portuguese wine

You can visit the house on the Mateus Rose bottle. It's in Northern Portugal.

http://www.casademateus.com/visita.htm

Visiting Portugal? Drinking Portuguese Wines? Reading Portuguese Names?

Portugal is a very popular country for visitors from the UK. The wines of Port and Mateus Rose have been popular in the UK for many years. The Portuguese are very friendly to people from the UK, because traditionally the British governments were allies or helpers of Portugal, especially at a time when England was fighting Spain at sea. So some of the goodwill to the British as business people and buyers as well as allies from years ago lingers on, reinforcing Portuguese politeness and friendliness to travellers and tourists.
 
Portuguese Wines
Portuguese Place Names
Bombay means beautiful bay.

Countries speaking Portuguese
Portuguese is spoken in Portugal and Brazil. Portuguese place names are likely to be found in places such as Macau and Goa.
You probably already know what to do, but if you are tired at the end of a long day, these reminders may help stir you into action:
Translate Portuguese by typing the words into Google Translate.
You can learn Portuguese from discs. Libraries have learning materials.
You can buy Portuguese dictionaries on Amazon.

Come back to this blog for updates.

   

Port - the sweet drink from Portugal

• The name of the country of Portugal comes from the castle of Portucale in the Douro region of Northern Portugal. Mateus Rose was the pink drink of the Sixties and Seventies, a Portuguese rose wine which the British found reliable, appealing and attractive. The bottle features a Portuguese palace of villa, and you could even buy a cheap kit to convert your stable, wide-bottomed, curvy green bottle into a table lamp.
• So if you ever had a bottle of Mateus Rose, you will recognise the company name on the bottle, Sogrape. (Sounds like so grape!) Mateus is a village and a palace. People tried to tell me that Mateus was a popular plebs drink but if Queen Elizabeth II had it when dining at the Savoy for lunches in the 1970s and 1980s, then it is good enough for me. Mateus also featured in a song 'getting juiced on Mateus', the Yellow Brick Road by Elton. The same company has Sandeman Port, 20, 30 or 40 years old.  
•  www.sograpevinhos.eu
• Port is very strong, 20% alcohol, so a little glass goes a long way.
• If you are going to stay in Portugal look for a chance to book one or more of the Pousadas, historic buildings converted into hotels.
• Want to stay at a winery? Quinta Nova has a hotel restaurant. You can have wine tasting, follow a walking trail or take boat trips down the river. The estate is run by ladies.
• www.quintanova.com
• One name you are likely to recognise is Cockburn's port. The name goes back a long way. The company was founded in 1815 in Portugal's second city, Porto. The founder was Robert Cockburn, who was from a Scottish family, and who served under the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular war, in Portugal. 
• I liked the Cockburn's Special Reserve which costs only about £14 in supermarkets. Sometimes there's a special deal and you can find it reduced to £10-12. This port comes from the Symington Family Estates. Another port to look for is the Graham's Six Grapes with the symbol of a bunch of six grapes on the label. The six grapes means top quality, a bit like a five star hotel. 
• Port is always sweet, or sweetish. and tastes great with dark chocolate or chocolate mousse and cheeses such as Stilton or a ripe white cheddar.
• Rafa means red in Latin and Rufo means drum in Portuguese, which you might guess from the drum on the label. (See my picture of the bottle above.)
• Another company is Nieport. The name is pronounced like knee-port. One of their amusing labels is Drink Me.

More details from:

www.wine-partners.at