November 16, 2005

A Portugese red table wine

The holy grail for wine drinkers is a nice bottle that is inexpensive enough to drink every day and yet tastes good on its own. When we lived in Italy we drank a wine that we bottled with friends; it turned out to be about $2 a bottle and was quite good. The equivalent wine in Maine is about $15. That $13 difference means that far fewer Americans drink wine as a part of their meal.

Happily, we found a very nice wine here at home at a compromise price and bought a case for the cellar. The wine is from Portugal, from the Northern Duoro Region, and is from a producer called Quintana da Cabriz. It is a Dao wine, from the region just south of the Duoro River. Most Portugese wines are whites from southern Portugal (think Vinho Verde) but Northern Portugal has two notable wine districts: Dao and Duoro. The grapes are the same grapes used in Porto, in this case Alfrocheiro, Tinta Roriz, and Touriga Nacional. It has an alcohol content of 13%.

I had the chance to travel in Portugal last year and was surprised by the gravel that supported the vines. It was a pile of rocks, and it looked like water would run right through it. I learned that Portugal makes a lot of Port but not much in the way of regular wine, and in fact many people tend to scoff at Portugese wines. The quality producers fight with a longtime bias for Port and against wine, so even when a quality wine is produced it has an uphill battle to get any recognition. So how would an inexpensive bottle of Portugese red fare? We bought it for $6.99 a bottle and decided to try it.

This is a medium bodied red wine, with a nicely balanced flavor up front and lingering fruit. We had it tonight with breaded veal cutlets.

It is difficult for me to describe a wine flavor. The problem is that it all sounds so pretentious. Sometimes, but not always, I can taste an obvious flavor, a knock-your-socks-off taste. A tawny port might taste like chocolate, in addition to tasting good with chocolate. But for me, most of the time, I don’t get a clear, unambiguous list of flavors.

But, and this is my problem, there should be a way to describe the wine. With tonight’s wine, I thought I tasted strawberrys and raspberries. I asked Dory, she said hmm, looked thoughtful, drank a bit more and said a she tasted cherries. I asked Kit, he tried hard not to laugh, and finally said it tasted like red wine. Then, after a bit he added, I think there is a citrus flavor. Dory chimed in that she also tasted citrus, but thought that citrus was usually associated with white wines. I had another small drink and thought, hmm, maybe I can taste citrus. And then later, while writing these notes, I tried it again and thought I tasted raspberries. So who knows? It is difficult to describe wine flavors.

The wine was very pleasant to have with this meal, and lots of others. It was not too heavy, not too light, it was (for us) ‘just right’. And most importantly, we found a wine that we can open and enjoy without having to have a special occasion. Enjoying wine with a meal with family and friends: that is what is important.

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