Lately we’ve been exploring more Portuguese wines, and I even attended an Appellation Alentejo Wine Seminar in Houston. Courtesy of Creative Palate, and as a follow-up to Exploring Alentejo Reds with a Portuguese Wine & Food Pairing, I was sent four Alentejo wines to taste and review. It was suggested that I taste the wines side-by-side, as to get a sense of Antao Vaz, the signature white grape of the Alentejo region, so I called on some friends to help.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, Red Shoes. Red Wine. will earn a small commission for the referral at no cost to you. Read more about affiliates & disclaimers here. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Just like the last wine and food pairing, one of those friends is a damn good cook, and he offered to pair the wines with summery tapas and dessert inspired by the region. Cory’s cooking is always fantastic, and we thoroughly enjoyed watermelon gazpacho (recipe in my Pinterest board here), paella, and ice cream cookie cake (recipe in my Pinterest board here). It was truly a pleasure to not only sample the wines, but to pair them with complimentary flavors.
During the last tasting, the cook’s wife and my dear friend Sarah used her wine journal, and got the rest of us blank journals to use, so we had our journals for this tasting as well. I also had my copy of Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine bookmarked to the Portuguese wine pages for everyone to take a quick look at. And we had wine sheets and Alentejo region sheets from Creative Palate (at the bottom of this post) for our reference as well.
[Shop these blank journals: Moleskine Cahier Journal, Soft Cover, Pocket (3.5″ x 5.5″) Ruled/Lined, Cranberry Red (Set of 3)]
So what did we think of the wines? By the end of the tasting, we all had our favorites, which was widely varied among the six of us, and uninfluenced by price…not that that mattered this time, as they were all very affordable and lovely white wines. We’re all Portuguese wine lovers now, and reaffirmed our love of the wine from the Alentejo region of Portugal. As wine drinkers, we’ll definitely keep our eye out for Antao Vaz on the market while ordering white wine with dinner or shopping for bottles at our local wine stores. Information on each of these four wines from Creative Palate’s program is below, as well as the sheets provided. I highly recommend all of them!
[Shop these wine tasting pour spouts: Measured Alcohol and Liquor Pourer with Black Collar Auto-Measure (12 Pack, Red 1 Oz)]
Herdade da Malhadinha Antão Vaz da Peceguina 2016, $25
An 100% Antão Vaz in its full “naked” glory: just 100% stainless steel and a bit of age highlighting its ample tropical and orange peel notes. Malhadinha da Nova is the “new” face of Alentejo: cordon-trained vines, micro-drip irrigation and a gravity-fed winery.
Fitapreta Branco 2018, $22
This wine is made by a Portuguese star winemaker who believes in taking the fruit from small parcels in his infertile schist rock soil vineyards, using native yeasts only and fermenting the batches separately to preserve their distinctive qualities. The grapes are blended post-fermentation (40% Antão Vaz, 40% Roupeiro and 20% Arinto) to produce a layered, complex wine with an intense aroma of citrus, a refreshing mineral edge and a long finish.
Herdade do Rocim ‘Mariana’ Branco 2017, $13
From the temperate Vidigueira sub-zone, thanks to cool air rushing in from the Algarve Coast, this is an Antão Vaz, Arinto and Alvarinho blend. Made by one of the area’s leading producers, the wine comes in at a refreshing 12.5% alcohol.
Esporão Monte Velho White Blend 2017, $12
Family-owned Esporão is one of Portugal’s largest and best-known estates. This Antão Vaz-based blend (40%), with Roupeiro and Perrum rounding out the wine, is a fuller-bodied, lusher, concentrated wine that pairs well with food.
Everything was wonderful, and I appreciate Creative Palate for sending over these delicious samples, and to our friends Cory and Sarah for cooking and hosting our little Portuguese inspired food and Alentejo white wine pairing. We drank wine into the night, watched the dogs watch the dishes being done (hopeful as always), and talked about visiting Portugal one day, the six of us. As an every day wine lover and habitual traveler, I have and promote an extreme appreciation for wine tourism. Each sip invokes a sense of place, an appreciation for climate, soil geology, geography, and cultural setting. If drinking wine doesn’t make you want to visit the place it comes from, or at least learn about it, it should. Portugal…we can’t wait to meet you!
For more information on Wines of Alentejo and to explore the region, visit their website here.
Technical Sheets and Fun Facts courtesy of Creative Palate Communications and Wines of Alentejo
Regional Overview: Alentejo brochure-regional overview.pdf
Fun Facts: Fun facts Alentejo.pdf
Grapes: Grapes Alentejo.pdf
Soil: Soil Alentejo.pdf
And my favorite…
Tourism: Tourism Alentejo.pdf