Tag Archives: Portuguese Wine

Budget Wine Review: Casa Santos Lima Confidencial Tinto Reserva Vinho Regional Lisboa, Portugal 2014

28 Friday Dec 2018

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casa santos lima confidencialThis is the second bottling from Casa Santos Lima that I’ve reviewed this year. The first was the Touriga Nacional-dominated Colossal Reserva. Both are outstanding for the price, perhaps the best quality for price available anywhere. Casa Santos Lima produces about 40% of the wine coming from Lisboa and is one of the largest exporters of Portuguese wine. This is no boutique winery. They have  a massive wine list but the Santos Lima family is apparently committed to quality at a reasonable price.

This medium-bodied charmer, a blend of 10 varietals which are not named in their literature, shows juicy dark and red fruit aromas, blackberry and pomegranate, with fresh earth and hints of tarragon. It’s crisp, succulent,  and bright on the palate with high toned acidity resting on a layer of soft, silky fruit. Sneaky, refined tannins firm up the finish which is gradually freighted with a rocky, mineral dimension.

A versatile wine, structured enough to stand up to meat dishes but with enough finesse and life to pair with lighter fare.

The wine dances across the palate with vibrant energy and a carefree, lyrical personality like Brian Setzer’s Route 66.

Technical Notes: Macerated for 28 days with 6 months of partial ageing in 250 litre barriques of French and Portuguese oak, unusual for wines in this price range.

Score: 90

Price: $10 (Purchased at BevMo)

Alc: 13.5%

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Budget Wine: Sogrape Silk and Spice Red Blend Portugal 2016

25 Friday May 2018

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silk and spiceMight a wine called Silk and Spice be designed for a market segment looking for something lush and a bit sweet? Don’t be fooled by its Portuguese origins. This is not one of those muscular, brawny reds from the Douro as hardscrabble as the people who have harvested grapes on those precariously steep riverbanks for centuries and risked their lives shooting small cask-laden boats down serious white water rapids to get the wine to market.

Nope. Nothing as romantic as all that. This wine could have been made anywhere.

A nose of clove, coriander and vanilla with an espresso core overwhelm the feeble red and black fruit aromas that  hide in shame. On the palate the wine is full bodied, soft, round, and smooth showing even more vanilla with discernible sugar. This is an off dry wine although it dries out a bit on the finish as the powdery tannins lap around the edges. A bit of tang finally shows up but the wine lacks acidity.

There is a lot of intense, spice flavor so if that is your thing you might find this appealing.

This is definitely for the candy wine crowd but there is a place for it. If I were serving barbecue with a sweet and spicy sauce or a mole sauce this would work better than most wines. But for sipping this had me reaching for the scotch after 1/2 a glass.

Pair with a big, pop ballad like Rihanna’s Diamonds

Blend: 40% Touriga Nacional, 20% Baga, 20% Syrah, 20% Alicante Bouchet.

Score: 85

Price: $11

Alc: 13%

Budget Wine Review: Casa Santos Lima “Colossal” Reserva Lisboa 2015

27 Friday Apr 2018

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This blend of Touriga Nacional, Syrah, Tinta Roriz, and Alicante Bouschet lives up to its name.

colassalUnusually concentrated for an inexpensive wine, it’s dense, but not too heavy, with a rich, full entre of sweet blackberry, almost soft, that rushes to a slashing, mineral midpalate with cut, and a long, puckering, slightly grippy finish as bitter as a scorned lover. Thankfully there’s a core of juicy fruit persisting through the abrupt transition. But all the theatrics are worth it. They are why this wine satisfies.

The nose of dark plum, smoke, and tar against a faint vanilla background hints at the muscular structure on the palate.

Volatile and reckless, its like a quiet thick night that falters then flares, this wine lies to you like Promises in the Dark.

Technical Notes: The largest producer of Lisbon regional wines, Casa Santos Lima exports 90% of their production. Aged for 8 month in French and American Oak barrels.

Score: 90

Alc: 14%

Price: $13 but Costco had it for $8

Budget Wine Review: Mural Reserva Red Wine Douro 2011

10 Friday Mar 2017

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muralThe land best known for its Port makes red wine as rugged as the slopes on which their vineyards sit. They typically deliver big flavors and firm structure at a modest price but they aren’t for the “soft and smooth” crowd. Most are blends dominated by the robustly tannic Touriga Nacional. But this wine is a bit different being a blend of 40% Touriga Franca, 40% Tinta Roriz (known as Tempranillo in Spain) and only 20% Touriga Nacional. It’s still well structured but the tannins have softened, especially now that it’s 6 years from its vintage date and it doesn’t quite have the midpalate heft and concentration of many Portuguese reds.

It is nevertheless a good value  as it delivers a seriously strange evolution.

The nose of roasted meat, earth, and saddle leather surrounding a core of dark berry is stunning. But in the mouth the full, structured fruit flattens out midpalate acquiring a metallic tone and a bit of severity, with powdery tannins lingering as the textured, prickly finish slowly fades in a cloud of dust. This is an odd trajectory starting round and full but hollowing out and then becoming exceedingly long and granular.

It’s good, cheap and weird. Points for originality.

25% of the wine saw used French oak for 9 months.

Works well with some dirty synth layered over a repetitive pulsing beat.

Score: 88

Price: $10

Alc: 14%

Budget Wine: Vale Do Bomfim Red Blend Douro, Portugal 2013

28 Friday Aug 2015

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vale do bomfimIn the budget wine category, Portugal is producing some of the best value on the market. This is one example.

Rich, ripe blackberry with fresh wood notes and hints of damp leaves accompany the characteristic savory herbal aromas that give Douro wines their distinctiveness. Good complexity at this price.

Concentrated forward fruit is enlivened by stealth salami flavors that foretell thick, hefty tannins on the medium length finish. This is a robust wine, solidly built, that maintains a rugged aspect despite having the harsh edges sanded down. Hovering between rustic and polished, this indeterminacy is part of what makes the dry wines from the Douro interesting.

Produced by the Symington family with grapes grown in vineyards that supply Dow with its better known Port wines, the blend for this wine changes each year. The 2013 is 40% Tinta Barroca, 30% Touriga Franca, 20% Touriga Nacional, 10% Tinta Roriz.

I can’t think of a better value wine.

Nobody does polished rustic like Bonny Raitt “Used to Rule the World”

Score: 89

Price: $11

Alc: 14%

Wine Review: Blandy’s Madeira Bual 5 year

22 Monday Dec 2014

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Madeira, the Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic,  gets the prize for creating the most ironic wine style. Most wine is destroyed when exposed to oxygen or heat. Madeira is made by exposing wine to oxygen and heat.

Bual grapes are harvested before they develop much sugar and while they still have plenty of acidity. After crushing, fermentation is induced but is stopped by the addition of grape spirits before fermentation is complete, boosting both the alcohol level and the sweetness. Then the process gets interesting. The wine is stored in large wooden casks in a room heated to 80-100 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 months to a year, which gently cooks the wine. The wine is then exposed to oxygen and gradually reduced temperatures until ready to bottle in 5 years, allowing evaporation to concentrate the wine. (This is Blandy’s method for 5 year Bual. Other producers and other styles of Madeira use methods of vinification that differ slightly from this one)

Because the wine has been thoroughly cooked and oxidized it Is virtually indestructible—an open bottle can be kept for years with no adverse effects.

What’s the result of this heat and oxidation?

The wine has a lovely gold color with orange highlights. The nose is packed with appealing aromas of golden raisin, apricot, and burnt orange peel against a background of caramel and almond. Despite considerable sweetness, it treads lightly on the palate. Good Madeira should not lay in the mouth like syrup but should show considerable life and finesse, as this 5-year does. And the finish is gloriously long with bristling acidity providing tart counterpoint to the more dominant dulcet flavors.

Quality Madeira comes in four styles from dry to sweet: Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, and Malmsey. The Bual is sweet but less so than the Malmsey; for me it hits my “sweet spot”.

Balanced and elegant, this is a wonderful aperitif that cries out for a good Stilton cheese as accompaniment. 5 years of aging only begins to express the depth of Madeira. But this is a great introduction at a good price.

Style: Sweet but balanced with acidity

Score: 90

Alc:19%

Price: $25

A wine cooked and exposed to the elements, beaten and unsheltered, it leads a life of sorrow, yet it expresses the tang of resistance, spirit and vivacity despite travail. Just like that other magnificent product of Portuguese culture—Fado, a music full of world-weariness but nevertheless life affirming. Who better to accompany a good bottle of Madeira that the incomparable Maritza.