My Attempt at Tasting 250 New Wines – Wines of Portugal Tasting

Portugal is Unique in that they produce 250 grape varietals unique to their region..

OK, I didn’t actually try to taste 250 new grape varietals (can you say “Alvarinho”, “Baga” “Trincadeira” or “Touriga Nacional” ?) but I did try to better understand the wonderful variety of wines coming from a country with a unique language and known more for fortified wines – their Ports – than for their still wines.

Trade Tastings can be a SERIOUS Affair!

The best part of my tasting was the seated seminar with Evan Goldstein

– I had seen him in videos, but it was great to actually meet the wine powerhouse in person. Passionate is not a wasted word on this wine lover – he really presented with energy and humor and a keen sense of fun and adventure – he popped a few key Portguese words into the presentation but for the obvious effect – few people understand the language!

Evan Goldstein of Full Circle Wine Solutions was quite engaging..

So what did I learn from the seated tasting of 7 wines (it was supposed to be 8, but one never made it through shipping!) ?

-Vinho Verde which translates as “Green Wine” does NOT mean green-hued wine, but rather a wine meant to be consumed “young”.

-Portuguese “Verdelho” is NOT the same as Spanish “Verdejo”

-There is a Rose Vinho Verde

-There are many micro-climates and the wines from the southern planes tend to ripen very evenly from year to year.

-Moscatel de Setubal is a Muscat Fortified wine other than Port from the southern Peninsula and has more of a golden raisin/apricot flavor than Ports more prunish, dark fruit flavors.

Overall I was impressed by the consistency of the wines – most had abundent acidity and enough fruit and flavor for backbone. Some of the reds such as the pure Touriga Nacional’s were quite tannic and “cedar box” spice, but still the average quality of wines was quite good.

I do want to mention that TasteDC was affiliated with the Consumer Grand Tasting that evening and helped to sell it out – although the wines were the same in the consumer tasting, the food was much better than the Trade got which is actually a good thing. Also the food was quite good – really tender carved Roast Beef, Ham Table, Specialty Taco Table and something I hadn’t seen before – a Ramen Noodle table with the chance to choose your own noodles and fixings- this kept the Vegetarians happy – Cheers!

Charlie “I Drink on the Job” Adler