Master of wine and many of you asked me To make this video so here it is we're Diving deep into the wine scene of Portugal Let's go Portuguese wines have a lot of things Going for them as the country has a long History many indigenous grape varieties Diverse terroirs and on top of that the Wines are generally pretty cheap it's The 10th largest producer of wine and While the country overlooks the Atlantic And was instrumental in discovering the Rest of the world it was also isolated For a long time and therefore stuck to Old traditions methods and varieties With part in Madeira Portugal continues To produce some of the most famous Fortified Wines in the world but they Are also great table wines coming out of Portugal especially today Leon prepared A lineup of Portuguese once that we can Taste together well technically I'm Going to taste them and you can sit back And relax and enjoy them through meal Okay we're starting off with bubbles as One does and this is the 2019 value Bruto Jose a sparkling wine from byrada Doc is the most important region when it Comes to sparkling wine in Portugal and They're using the grape variety bugger Which can on one hand produce really Structured and intense red wines but on The other hand it can produce really
Fresh and vibrant sparkling wines the Tradition of producing sparkling Baga in Bayarada that's a bit of a trunk twister Goes back a long time apparently to the End of the 19th century this Winery Though was founded in 2005. they do a Whole bunch pressing and then Fermentation in stainless steel and Barrels and they leave the wine on the Leaves for 18 months to give it a bit More roundness these briochi flavors but Well let's just pop the cork All right Didn't spill any wine that's pretty good Listening to sparkling wine being poured Is ASMR to my ears so as you can see the Wine is copper colored there's a slight Red tinge here It looks appealing it is more fruit Forward than some rosacea paints would Be it smells of cherries raspberries Strawberries very fruit driven but not In the kitchen way it's actually quite Beautiful there's also a little bit of Red not bread but bread like rye bread Flavor coming through it's not super Briochy But it's nice I like it on the pad it's Rich and concentrated but it finishes Very very fresh very vibrant very Lively It has 12 percent of alcohol so the Alcohol is fairly low there's good Concentration there but not too much I Think this is really good it might be a
Bit surprising to hear that Portugal can Produce great sparkling wine because People assume that sparkling wine needs To come from a cool climate in northern Europe but well that's not necessarily The case first of all bayirada is very Close to the Atlantic and you get lots Of freshness coming from the ocean Secondly bugger manages to keep maintain The freshness the acidity and therefore You can have lots of freshness in the Wine and third it's really important to Pick the Hollow State correctly for Sparkling wine you generally Harvest Early in order to make sure that the Wine well doesn't necessarily have too Much body and keeps good acidity and Good freshness levels lip smacking fresh I really enjoy this wine I'm going to Rate it 88 points I don't think it's a Super serious one so it doesn't have the Complexity to go above 90 in my book but I think it is really nice and I would Love to drink this with some cured ham That would be just delicious so next up We have the 2022 Anselmo Mendes either In your contacto from Vino Verde Vino Vera is an interesting region on the one Hand you have lots of bulk wine Production of very simple slightly fizzy Is sometimes off dry white ones and on The other hand you have very complex Wines and avarindio oftentimes plays an Important role when it comes to these
High-end wines the great variety Combines delicate fruit flavors with Good freshness and nice body and Especially when you leave it in contact With the lease with the yeast cells with The dead yeast cells from the Fermentation you get a very exciting Mouth feel so this Winery started in 1997 and the ivarino contacto as the Name suggests gets some skin contact so They leave the juice in contact with the Skins to extract some more flavor get a Little bit more texture into the wine as Far as I understand this is not an Orange wine so they didn't leave it in Contact with the skins for a long time Just for a little bit to get well in Additional dimension in this case they Also played with lease so they stirred Up the lease on a regular basis in order To get a little bit more mouth feel and Concentration into the wine so as you Can see this is not an orange one it's Actually a fairly light in color And it smells really nice it smells of Apricots and white peaches it doesn't Have a lot of yeasty flavors coming Through it's just really beautifully Fruit on the palette it has lots of Freshness the this is what you call Mouth watering lots of freshness lots of Acidity Really vibrant and Lively but it doesn't Necessarily have the concentration in
The body of a really great other in your I'm going to rate this 88 points I think This is exactly the Light fresh white Wine that you want in your glass while Eating some seafood some prawns some Fish even grilled fish but yeah Everything that comes out of the sea Because this grows next to the Sea and I Think you can feel that the next one is The 2021 Dorita encosado Reserva from Dao that was basically the next region When you move further Inland from Bayada In the region where the sparkling wine Was from Dao is surrounded by mountains It goes from 200 meters to 1000 meters In altitude it's quite a wild and really Beautiful region and they make some Amazing wines when it comes to red wines That work with the Portuguese Flagship Varietal tuiga Nacional they also use Tintel Ruiz which is actually tempranion And Spain and they work with giant which Is actually Mencia in Spain Wine is so complicated when it comes to White wine and cosado plays an important Role the Oxford companion actually States that encosado is the jewel in the Crown of white wines from Dao and I do Agree so this Winery was founded in 2012. they use lots of the Native grape Varieties in Dao and they actually Spontaneously ferment this wine they use Barrels 20 are new and 80 are used Barrels again they play with the leaves
So they leave the wine in contact with The yeast cells for 10 months to well Again give it a little bit more Complexity and a little bit more body This is again really nice it combines Like bruised Apple characters Green Apple notes with those very delicate Oak Flavors so it's really complex and Really balanced on the palette again you Wouldn't necessarily think you're in Southern Europe has so much freshness so Much tension the acidity is quite High The Finish is very long but there's Still bloody I mean this one doesn't Have a lot of alcohol it's at 12 of Alcohol so it's really refreshing A complete one a really complete one if You like like Chablis or Um slightly oaked burgundies This is something you should try out I'm Going to give this 90 points I think It's a beautiful complex one and I would Drink this with fried chicken I think You could actually even go for KFC here Because the acidity would just break up The fattiness of the the crust and it Wouldn't overpower the meat I think this This should work really well so next up We have the first red wine the 2019 Verente Duro from neport in the Duro Valley the Duro Valley is most famous For port wine but as consumption for Part one is declining people started to Look at other options and neport was one
Of the Pioneers when it comes to the Production of table wines they produce Really nice pot wines but also really Good table wines so well let's Taste this one the kneeboard Winery was Founded in 1842 so a long time ago and They now have projects in different Regions and different countries this Wine is a blend of different grape Varieties as they often do in the Duro Valley but mainly tinta horis and toriga Franca but most of the wineries in the Duro Valley are actually co-planted so You don't have one grape Variety in one Parcel you have lots of different bread Varieties planted next to each other and Everything is basically harvested Together the wine was fermented in Stainless steel and then aged in bricks For 22 months but I don't really get a Lot of brick flavor here it's actually Much more fruit driven the wine has Actually quite a restrained fruit Character it smells of blackberries Black pepper licorice spices so it's not Well it's actually not very fruit driven It's more Spicy on the pad it's actually quite Lean and structured I think it is good But well I actually think it misses a Little bit well more bloody more Richness there's something missing I'm Going to rate this 86 points and I think
This could have been a bit better this Is a one from the Duro Valley a really Warm climate that produces rich and Concentrated wines but they purposely Went for a wine that is a little bit More restrained more structured with 13 Of alcohol which is fine but I think if The grapes would have been a little bit More ripe this could have been more Complete Um a little bit more exciting but this Is just my own opinion the last one is The 2019 fita prete palpito Tinto Reserva from alantejo alantero is a huge Region in the south of Portugal covering Roughly one-third of its land mass and It's actually most well known for the Production of cork most of the corks That I used in the world for wine come From alantejo but when it comes to the Wine production the region wasn't Necessarily seen as a well high quality Wine producer but that has changed over The last few decades as more and more Producers are focusing on getting the Best out of those Vineyards this Winery Was founded in 2003 by Antonio macanita And he's working with an English Consultant named David Booth in this Blend they use Alicante Boucher which is A tantoye grape variety so a grape that Adds quite a lot of color to the wine And allagonesh which is also tempranio It's just another synonym for the same
Grape variety so yeah wine is Complicated this one was fermented Spontaneously there was a post Fermentation maceration for 21 days so The wine was left in contact with the Skins to extract a little bit more of That color tannins and so on and so Forth and then it was aged in berricks For 18 months this is actually really Well made they combine the spicy flavors Of the oak with the sour cherry Character of the fruit on the pet it's Lucy and Rich the tenants are present There is good acidity there and actually Feels very complete so I'm going to rate This 93 points I think this is beautiful A really good red wine all right this Was a really fun tasting as you can see Portugal can bring quite a lot of Different stars and different grape Varieties to the table and all of these Wines were around 20 US dollars so they Are still pretty affordable while Bringing serious quality into your Glasses my favorite two were the palpita And the encosado two ones that are just Beautiful and I think probably not Something that everyone has tasted Before so you should check those out but The other ones were also really good There was no dud here they were all Performing really well so thank you for Watching if you like this video then Please like it down here subscribe to my
Channel if you haven't done so already My question of the day is what do you Think about Portuguese wines do you like Them or not let me know down below I Hope I see you guys again soon until Then stay Thirsty [Music] Foreign