More than Port and Vinho Verdes

I RECENTLY attended a Wines of Portugal event at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati City. I normally get half a dozen or so invitations to these types of events annually, and due to my busy schedule, often I do not get to attend. But this time around, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity because Portugal is one those wine countries that I have little experience with other than with the Vinho Verdes and the Portos – the two most popular wine regions in Portugal. And yet even with Vinho Verdes, I still apparently have much to learn.

And nothing beats learning, especially for a sensory-driven product like wine, then from actual tastings which this event offered.

The presence of select Portuguese winery representatives was a bonus too as I got to converse with the experts — saving me from traveling 7,000+ miles. The Wines of Portugal was a purely trade event — meaning, it was by invitation only. The objective was for local wine importers to attend and connect with the visiting wineries. This was also a media event to get much needed publicity on Portuguese wines that has only a negligible market share among wine exporting countries to the Philippines. I qualified as both importer and media, but in this case, I was more the latter.

In this event, there were a modest 12 wineries represented, with over 150 wines to taste and try.

These are my personal takes on what I learned from the event:

INTERESTING FACTSPortugal’s wines are classified into three categories:

1. Vinho – the most basic and generic equivalent to the Vin de Table of the French;

2. IGP or Indicação Geográfica Protegida – this is equivalent to the IGT or Indicazione Geografica Tipica of Italy and includes wines from larger regional designations, big regions and not specific sub-regions; and,

3. DOP or Denominação de Origem Protegida – this is equivalent to the French AOC or Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée and the wines come from specific wine regions.

Portugal at present has 31 DOPs compared to France’s 363 AOCs. For comparison, Burgundy in France alone has close to 100 AOCs.

GREAT PRICINGOne thing for sure, many of the wines are really of great value. From my experience, Spanish wines are already some of the best value-for-money wines available especially for regional DO (denominacion de origen) wines like those from Castilla La Mancha. Yet in this event, I found several wines from Portuguese DOPs that are at par or even lower.

It is interesting to note that most premium wines I encountered at the Wines of Portugal event were in the reasonable price range of €5-6/bottle ex-cellar. Given that I am an importer and based on my calculations, tax, freight and standard margins included, these wines will come out as just at P1,000/bottle retail – an amazing price given the quality in the bottles I personally tasted. This price is equivalent to an Australian Barossan Shiraz or a NZ Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc – not a bad price range to be in.

Yet, I feel these Portuguese wines can overdeliver on their quality solely based on price.

NEW GRAPE VARIETALS TO LEARN ABOUTTwo of the top five most popular grape varietals in Portugal are actually very Spanish in nature (Note: I won’t debate on the origin of these grape varietals as it may become controversial due to the two countries’ national pride). These are: Alvarinho — mainly grown in the Minho region, and known as Albariño in Spain in the nearby Rias Baixas wine region, and a mainstay in the famous Vinho Verde DOP; and then there is Tinta Roriz as it is known in the northern part of the Portugal in the Douro and Dão areas, or Aragonez as it is called in Alentejo region, but we all know this varietal as the omnipresent Tempranillo in Spain. These were the two varietals I was least interested in because I was already well acquainted with them.

However, I was impressed with those I was unfamiliar with, including the following:

1. Fernão Pires – a green grape varietal also known as Maria Gomes in the Bairrada DOP. This wine is big in the Tejo DOP region and known for its aromatics, tropical flavors like pineapple and passionfruit, mineral notes and refreshing finish. I had a slew of these 100% Fernão Pires wines, especially from the Adega de Almerim booth at the event.

Adega de Almerim is the largest winery cooperative with over 170 members. With 1,200 hectares of vineyard, and production of 20 million liters of wine annually, it is considered the biggest wine producer in all of Portugal.

Their best wine, in my humble opinion, is not even a DOP but an IGP — the Vila de Corte Non-Vintage Fernão Pires, which I found to be really fresh, extremely crisp, with nice white petal notes, and a succulent tropical flavor.

2. Loureiro – a green grape varietal and one of the mainstays of the popular Vinho Verde DOP. This varietal has fresh, grapey and vineyard-smelling fragrance with sharper acidity and flinty notes.

I had a very nice Loureiro Espumante (sparkling) de Vinho Verde at the Adega Ponte da Barca booth, where this wine was super refreshing, racy, and a deliciously easy drink to enjoy.

3. Touriga Nacional – a bluish grape varietal that is the backbone of the Port wines that cigar-smoking wine lovers adore. Touriga Nacional also creates amazing long-aging wines and has an alluring fragrance of ripe berries, with a full-bodied texture.

I tried a 100% Touriga Nacional from Casa Relvas under the sub-brand Sao Miguel which I really enjoyed, and it was a light-medium bodied wine, with flavors of blackberries and licorice, with soft tannins, silky, and slightly peppery at the end. Its best examples may still come from Douro DOP area.

4. Trincadeira – a purplish grape varietal that is known as Tinta Amarela. This varietal is planted all over the Portuguese vineyards. The wines are normally dry, medium to full-bodied with blackberry flavors, earthy, mushroom-like notes, and a popular blend in some of the best Douro DOP wines in the market.

I had a few of these Trincadeira wines from different producers and they did not disappoint.

Indeed, there is much to learn about Portuguese wines, as there are roughly 200 native grape varietals found in Portuguese vineyards, and we are barely touching the surface. As they say, the best wisdom is experience and let us taste and try as much Portuguese wine as we can.

Without traveling to Europe, we can try these wines here in our country (which has limited access to Portuguese wines), or in nearby countries like Singapore or Hong Kong where the availability of Portuguese wines means there is more for us to explore. One thing is for sure, Portuguese wines are underrated!

For wine importers looking to consider Portuguese wines, please contact me, and I will connect you to the wineries I met at the Wines of Portugal event.

Sherwin Lao is the first Filipino wine writer member of both Bordeaux based Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux (FIJEV) and the UK-based Circle of Wine Writers (CWW). For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, wine consultancy, and other wine related concerns, e-mail the author at wineprotege@gmail.com, or check his wine training website https://thewinetrainingcamp.wordpress.com/services/.