We have recently discovered Portuguese wines and have been greatly impressed with this mostly undiscovered (at least for Americans) wine region.  They are producing some really top quality, age-worthy wines that would rival some of neighboring Spain’s great wines.  We also love the fact that there are amazing value wines coming out of Portugal – including many for under $10.  We hit up the Wines of Portugal tasting event last night at City Winery, and we’re happy to introduce a post from our friend and guest writer Kristi:

Portugal – Where There’s More than Just Port – Last night, Jill, Riki and I met some friends and went to the Wines of Portugal tasting event at City Winery to promote WomensHeart.  Having traveled briefly in Portugal, I have blurry recollections of sipping on some fantastic port, but I do not remember having any amazing wine. So, this tasting was a great opportunity to discover some non-port gems.  Wine tastings are tricky for obvious reasons – no food + lots of wine = forgetting what I drank. But luckily, I e-mailed myself my favorite tables of the evening (the lawyer in me coming out, clearly). They are as follows: tables 43 and 44, where charming Italian men from Monte Da Penha and Quinta de Ventozelo poured some great whites and ports; tables 47-48 had by far my favorite whites of the evening from Wines & Winemakers by Saven (although, sadly, they’re only available in Connecticut right now), they were crisp, light and fantastic; table 49 had a great set of reds as a whole from Sogrape Vinhos S.A./Evaton Inc., and the gentleman doing the pouring was nice enough to direct us to the best port and best overall red of the tasting, which was rather courteous of him; table 50 had the best port of the night from Premium Port Wines, Inc. where a cute, older gentleman (who kind of looked like the Gordon’s fisherman – without the yellow getup) commanded the port stage; finally, table 39 had the best overall red that we tried – it was from Herdade Da Malhadinha Nova where the owner’s niece does the drawings for the labels – look for a hand drawn cow and you know you’ve got the right wine. 

There were definitely some miss-hits – I tried at least two whites that were terrible – very clear (as my friend Kate pointed out, it looked like vodka in a wine bottle), flat-tasting and with a slight, unwanted carbonation.  The most difficult part of the evening was the fact that we were unable to pronounce any of the varietals, but Portuguese sounds like drunk Spanish, so that was no surprise. I do recall, however, that the Alvarinho (pronounced Al-va-reen-yo) region was very popular.  All in all, it was a successful evening – I even got a phone number from one of the pourers who started the pour with, “I’m a car salesman, I don’t give a sh*t about wine, it’s my father’s wine.” He then proceeded to pour us great wine and confiscate wine for us from other unsuspecting tables.

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