This is the last day of touring before heading back to Oporto for the Essencia do Vinho - we'll be toured around Quinta do Vallado, where we stayed last night; visit the Wine and Soul project, which is a small winery project that is being run by a husband and wife winemaking team (for other wineries) of Jorge and Sandra; and finally, a visit to Lavradores de Feitoria, a co-op in the Douro region. We'll end the night in an ocean view sushi restaurant eating pork loin ... I found that strange too ... but it's all part of day 4 in Portugal, let's take a look:
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| Touring Quinta do Vallado: We start out in the orchard by the pool (to the left) - this is an orange tree with plenty of fruit |
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| And so is this - on this tiny tree there were about half a dozen oranges |
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| The tour takes us past the new inn on the Vallado property, we didn't stay here because the electricity had yet to be hooked up - had we been a day later, different story. The entire hotel is made from slate, walls, stairs and floors. |
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| Gratuitous Animal Shot #7: A walk through the old winery kitchen found this "kitchen cat" under the table - he / she followed us through the rest of the tour. |
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| And here is the outside of the new gravity flow winery ... because of the hilly nature of the Douro gravity flow is a natural outcome |
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| Inside the new winery |
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| The new lagars in the new winery ... and to prove the cat followed us ... |
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| I present my next Gratuitous Animal Shot #8: Cat in a lagar |
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| The stairs to the depths of the winery: barrel room and beyond |
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| The underground barrel room ... and then just because I wanted to ... |
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| my barrel room artsy shot |
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| Thus endth the tour of Quinta do Vallado. |
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| And an hour later we started our tour of the Wine & Soul project, started by husband and wife winemaking team of Jorge and Sandra (pics to come of them both) |
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| A look at some of their first 3 hectare vineyard which they bought in 2003 |
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| Scanning out over their neighbours vineyards - great scenery from the top of this hill |
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| Looking down the vineyard into the valley and forest below to these "guys" burning something ... |
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| ... creating this billow of smoke across the valley. |
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| The wines of the 'Soul project, "Pintas" (meaning spots) ... the best wine is the Quinta da Manoella 2009 VV (3rd from left) - a field blend from a 7 hectare plot of 30+ varieties from vines that are over 100 years old; aged 20 months in 80% new French oak. Chocolate, red fruit and sweet plum on the nose with a lovely mouth feel, good minerality, spices, herbs and dark fruit palate ... interesting brambly finish that lingers (**** 1/2) |
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| The winery is so small they keep the barrels in the lagars when not in use to foot trod the wines (all wines are made in this method) |
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| The team of Wine & Soul: Jorge Serodio and Sandra Tavares-DeSilva ... Jorge on why Tawny is a more interesting wine than Vintage Port: "Vintage you taste the grapes; Tawny you taste the grapes, the wood, the oxidation - it's a mix of things and more complex." |
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| Next stop Palacios Mateus, home to Lavradores de Feitoria ... it is the icon palace on the bottles of Matus worldwide, but it is not made by this company - the rights to the picture were sold years ago. |
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| A map of the 18 properties under the Lavradores umbrella - a group of growers co-op started in 2001: they export 70% of their production to 23 countries. |
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| The Best Wines ... The Meruge line of wines: The 2009 White from 100% Viosinho (grape) which is barel fermented and aged 6-7 months in Portuguese raw oak, a great Chardonnay alternaative with nice ageing potential (****) and the 2008 Red (80% Tinta Roriz) with its delicacy of fresh fruit and berries and well integrated tannins (****+) |
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| 2008 Tres Bagos - Grande Escolha: 6 varieties go into the wine all 60+ years of age, made only in the best of years. I's a barrel selection wine, most barrels even selected, 18. Nice fruit and intense oak, a wine made for ageing (****) |
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| "Twit of the Year" strikes again: Christopher passes the Bagos on the left hand side |
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| With our days of tasting and touring over it was back to Oporto for the main event: Essencia 2012 ... we met at Shis restaurante for the opening night dinner |
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| The set-up was outdoors (in February) overlooking the ocean (at night) - heaters were set up to keep us all warm. |
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| At a seaside sushi restaurant we ate: Bed of gratin Chevre with coulis of red pepper |
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| loin of "porco preto"with hunt sausage and watercress puree ... with nary the sight of fish ... odd; the inside of the restaurant smelled great, if you can recall a fresh fish sushi bar. It was a pity not to see any on our plates. |
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| This dessert went a long way to make up for it though: apple strudel with vanilla ice cream |
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| The wines of the evening were sponsored by the Dao region ... and this was the best of the night. |
Well, that's it for Day 4 - tomorrow it's Essencia time, lots of wine and a group of International Professionals will get together in a room to decide the best wines of Portugal ... see you tomorrow in the room and on the floor of the tasting ... plus I'll show you a picture of the world's smallest bath-mat. All things to look forward to in the Day 5 pictures.
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