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MORE PORTUGUESE TABLE WINES
- QUINTA DO CRASTO
The Crasto estate is a beautiful property on the north side of the Douro on
a hill situated between Régua and Pinhão. The property currently
consists of 230 hectares (not all planted to vineyards), with some very old vines in some of the
vineyards. -
The name Crasto probably stems from the Roman word "Crastum,"
meaning "fort" or "fortress." The estate is
owned by the Roquette family, a major wine clan in the realm of high
quality Portuguese wines. Another branch of Roquette's owns the
famous Herdade de Esporão property in the Alentejo region.
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A view of the Douro to the south-east from Crasto
Tomas and Miguel run the enterprise. It was their grandfather who
bought the place in the early 20th century and it was, apparently, a
vacation home for many years. When the brothers got involved in
their own wine estate, they turned to their cousins in the Alentejo who
had their winemaker, Australian David Baverstock, head up to the Douro to
offer consulting and winemaking advice.
The winery has grown dramatically over the past decade and today it's one
of the leading lights in the Douro.
Manuel Lobo de Vasconcellos is the winemaker.
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- The entire winery was in a state of change when we visited in the Spring
of 2009. One whole cellar will be devoted entirely to the production
of white wine. Another cellar will be devoted to Port, though only seven
percent of their production is in Port wine.
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They use a lot of French oak for their table wines, some of which are
stellar.
We find the wines of Crasto to be generally quite
impressive. Their basic red wine is of good quality and retains its sense
of place nicely.
Some tasters may find the Old Vines bottling of red and the Touriga bottling to
be "too internationally-styled," but we find these to be exceptional
wines on any level.
Ports are quite good, as Manuel explained they make Port as a "fortified,
sweet red wine. We don't make it from over-ripe grapes." It's
also less sweet than many of the more famous brands of Port.
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Currently in stock: 2006 Quinta do Crasto
Douro Red $17.99
2005 Touriga "Old Vines" $89.99
1997 Vintage Port $53.99
- José Maria da Fonseca
  This is a huge company, producing more than a million cases of wine annually.
Their portfolio includes more than two dozen wines, not to mention brandy and sparkling
wines. The firm is now run the by sixth generation of the family, they manage to
combine tradition with modern winemaking.
They are not affiliated, by the way, with the Port producer in the Douro Valley which
also bears the Fonseca name. - One of the two brothers runs the business, while the other (a U.C. Davis graduate) is in
charge of the winemaking.
It was founded in 1834 by Jose Maria, a fellow who brought the Castelão
grape to the Terras do Sado (they're in the town of Azeitão, about a 30
minute drive south of Lisbon) from the Ribatejo region (north of
Lisbon).
Castelão is the table wine backbone of the house. The winery has, in
fact, been a victim of its own success. They've long sold a simple,
good quality red table wine made from Castelão using the name
"Periquita." Other winemakers started calling their
Castelão wines "Periquita." After much legal wrangling,
it's been decided that Periquita is really a brand name and it's exclusive
to Jose Maria da Fonseca, so others have had to change the name of their
wines back to Castelão.
- The current Periquita wine is a nice, simple, straightforward, reliable
red. It's not a fancy, oaky red wine. It's not made with
American wine critics in mind. They seem to make this for people who
are willing to pay ten bucks for a decent, well-made bottle of wine.
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- The Periquita wine spends a few months in mahogany vats and a small
percentage of the blend goes into oak. Those big casks are the ones made of
mahogany.
- They typically now blend in a small amount (maybe 10% each) of Aragonez
and Trincadeira into their Periquita wine.
They make a Periquita "Reserva" wine. This was, at one
point, simply the normal bottling of Periquita with additional bottle
aging. It also used to be called "Classico." Today,
though, the wine is actually more of a special selection. It's
typically a blend of half Periquita with some Touriga Franca and Touriga
Nacional. The Touriga vineyards are mature, having been planted in the
1970s.
JM da Fonseca also makes a wine called Domini which has no Periquita.
This was, initially, made in collaboration with their (and everybody's, it
seems) cousin, Cristiano Van Zeller of Douro acclaim and fame. Domini
today is made of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta
Roriz.
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- The other major claim to fame by this winery is the famous Moscatels
called Setúbal. We've long been fans and are stupefied to see how
importers (they've had a number of different outfits bringing their wines to
the U.S. market over the past couple of decades) seem to be allergic to a
wine which doesn't sell at the snap of ones fingers.
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- They have a remarkable cellar full of Setúbal wines. The photo
above shows barrels of very old Moscatels. These are remarkably fine
and one of the best dessert wines on the planet. But a lack of
marketing acumen has led to a lack of sales.
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- Currently In Stock: Jose Maria da Fonseca "Periquita"
$9.99
We have some Setúbal in stock...and can order the Domini
wine for you.
If you're in need of a deluxe bottled water, JM da Fonseca now offers a
Vinho Verde for about ten bucks...we were disappointed in this, frankly.
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FAMEGA
 It's
got to be difficult for producers such as the Caves de Cerca who make this Famega wine. Here they are, in an era when every wine has to
"make a statement." Many wines, even the whites, are
15% alcohol and loaded with oak.
Yet they continue to produce this light, simple, modestly-priced, dry and
faintly fizzy little wine in an age when people seem to be looking to be
whacked over the head with potent wines.
No oak, of course. Low alcohol. Slightly fizzy. This is a
delicious wine with steamed clams, especially. But it makes for a nice
little picnic white, too.
Currently in stock: FÂMEGA VINHO VERDE $7.99
VINHOS BORGES
 This
firm dates back to the 1880s and around its hundredth anniversary, was
sold to another wine and drinks firm. It's a winery which finds
marketing success in Great Britain and here they're attempting to gain a
piece of the pie.
The Douro is an interesting wine region. Rugged is a word
which springs to mind. And there's a bit of Napa Valley-styled
marketing there, too, so you often need to have your wallet filled with
cash. But what's interesting is that while some wines are quite
expensive, others are easily within the realm of affordability.
Borges has vineyards in various regions of Portugal.
We tasted a few of their wines and found a white wine from the Douro
Valley to be really good and quite impressive, especially for its modest
price.
The wine is called "Lello" and comes from two sites in the Douro
Valley. It's made of grape varieties relatively unknown to
California wine drinkers: Malvasia-Fina, Gouveio, Viosinho and
Rabigato. It's cold-fermented in stainless steel tanks and about as
close as it gets to wood is the paper label on the bottle and the
cardboard boxes it's shipped in.
The vines are mature...averaging 20 years of age. The Malvasia is a
more floral variety while Viosinho seems to make a wine of crisp
acidity. The resulting blend is a nice, crisp white which will
really set up a more complex red, but it's also unusually nice with
seafood.
The label appears to be some sort of vision test, so if you have not been
to the eye doctor in a while, simply come in a get a bottle of this.
Then hold your right hand over your left eye and try to read the gibberish
in small type on the label.
A winery rep explained it has something to do with alphabet
soup.
We suspect it's more likely the marketing crew at Borges was simply
drinking too much wine when they designed this packaging.
Currently in stock: LELLO 2007 Douro White $6.99
QUINTA DE CHOCAPALHA We spent
some time driving around the Estremadura region and found a few really nice
wines there.
One of the estates which has a lot of "buzz" is this Quinta de
Chocapalha near the town of Alenquer, a suburb of Lisbon. It's about
30 miles from Lisbon and will take you nearly an hour to drive there and
another 30-40 minutes to actually find the place. I think the locals
enjoy the "sport" of watching foreigners drive around in circles
and they count how many times you pass by.
The Chocapalha (Choca is the warm wind of the region and palha
refers to 'tranquil waters'--there are four springs on the property) estate
is owned by the Tavares da Silva family. Alice and Paulo.
They have a rather famous daughter, Sandra. She works for Cristiano
Van Zeller (everybody in Portugal's wine scene is Cristiano's cousin) in the
Douro, as well as making some famous wine with her husband (Wine &
Soul). Alice (she's of Swiss heritage) and Paulo have this gorgeous
little winery amidst some rolling hills in the Estremadura. And they
get some winemaking expertise from their rock-star-winemaker-daughter
Sandra.
They bought the property in the 1980s and sold grapes to a local co-op
winery, only embarking on their own winemaking adventure in 2000. Dad
planted all sorts of locally popular vines, but Sandra didn't like his
selection of grapes and so they ended up re-grafting them to more
interesting varieties.
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Sandra's father, Paulo.
Cellar master/winemaker Diogo Sepulveda...he worked at Napa's Viader
winery in 2006.
The famous Sandra.
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- We have one of the Chocapalha wines presently. It's a 2005 red and
made of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Castelão and perhaps some
Alicante. Though aged in small oak barrels, it's matured in seasoned
wood, so the oak is well in the background. Meanwhile, the dark
fruit notes of the Touriga take center stage. The tannins are
balanced, so this is quite drinkable now, especially when it's on the
dinner table.
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Currently in stock: 2005 QUINTA DE CHOCAPALHA
"TINTO" SALE PRICED $14.99
MORE
PORTUGUESE TABLE WINES
PORTUGUESE
DESSERT WINES
By the way...we also have Sagres Beer from Portugal, as well as some brandies and
liqueurs.
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