Wine from Portugal....not one that many people head straight towards but there is a lot of really delicious wine coming from here at the moment. So, on my hols this year I decided to pit online wine club wines against one I bought in a wine shop to see which really hit the spot. All three wines we tasted were slightly different blends but all had the staple grape of Portugal, Touriga Nacional, somewhere in the mix. This grape is a full bodied lovely - a bit like Cabernet Sauvignon and works well in all sorts of blends. It's also eminently drinkable!
The first wine we tasted, the Galodoro, (£6.99) is from Naked Wines which is a fab company. I have been a customer of theirs for years and their ethos is just fantastic. (More on wine clubs in my next blog posts but this one is a real fave and well worth the wait to join!) This one is a blend of 3 Portuguese grapes and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was a gorgeous deep ruby red and smelt of bramble and oak. On drinking this was an absolute pleasure and in fact my favourite of the three. Really well balanced and smooth with tons of juicy cherry and blackberry flavours. An absolute treat.
The second, Alta Corte (£7.99) from Rude Wines was a funny old thing. Again a blend of grapes which included Touriga Nacional. A slightly more intense blood red and still very deep coloured, the nose was amazing....bramble, fig, leather, spice and oak promising a beauty of a wine....which it sort of failed to deliver on. The taste was fine, smooth and balanced, a touch of fig and cherry but really not up to the gorgeous bouquet. If I'd have tasted this on it's own I think I would have really enjoyed it but it paled a little compared to the other two.
Our third and final wine as the Ciconia (c £9.99), the only wine with Touriga Nacional as the main grape in the blend with added Tempranillo and Shiraz. I bought this from the absolutely wonderful Bodnant Wine Cellar (well worth a visit, great range and lovely staff, if you're around North Wales) but it's a bottle which can be found in quite a few places. Once again a lovely deep and intense ruby red colour and a nose of oak and spice with very little fruit but then on the palate this was super-fruity with some lovely raspberry notes coming through.
Portuguese wine is a perfect pairing with cheese and indeed we polished off our bottles with an amazing cheese/charcuterie platter. I would fully urge you to go out and try a bottle if you haven't done already. You won't be disappointed; some gorgeous wine and generally extremely good value. Snap some up before others get in on it :-)
The first wine we tasted, the Galodoro, (£6.99) is from Naked Wines which is a fab company. I have been a customer of theirs for years and their ethos is just fantastic. (More on wine clubs in my next blog posts but this one is a real fave and well worth the wait to join!) This one is a blend of 3 Portuguese grapes and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was a gorgeous deep ruby red and smelt of bramble and oak. On drinking this was an absolute pleasure and in fact my favourite of the three. Really well balanced and smooth with tons of juicy cherry and blackberry flavours. An absolute treat.
The second, Alta Corte (£7.99) from Rude Wines was a funny old thing. Again a blend of grapes which included Touriga Nacional. A slightly more intense blood red and still very deep coloured, the nose was amazing....bramble, fig, leather, spice and oak promising a beauty of a wine....which it sort of failed to deliver on. The taste was fine, smooth and balanced, a touch of fig and cherry but really not up to the gorgeous bouquet. If I'd have tasted this on it's own I think I would have really enjoyed it but it paled a little compared to the other two.
Our third and final wine as the Ciconia (c £9.99), the only wine with Touriga Nacional as the main grape in the blend with added Tempranillo and Shiraz. I bought this from the absolutely wonderful Bodnant Wine Cellar (well worth a visit, great range and lovely staff, if you're around North Wales) but it's a bottle which can be found in quite a few places. Once again a lovely deep and intense ruby red colour and a nose of oak and spice with very little fruit but then on the palate this was super-fruity with some lovely raspberry notes coming through.
Portuguese wine is a perfect pairing with cheese and indeed we polished off our bottles with an amazing cheese/charcuterie platter. I would fully urge you to go out and try a bottle if you haven't done already. You won't be disappointed; some gorgeous wine and generally extremely good value. Snap some up before others get in on it :-)
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