Espadeiro

I feel that I am on something of a roll having found a white D last week and a red E this, two tasks I failed on last year. For the white I had to stretch the budget quite a long way, but this week we are back in comfortable financial territory.

I found the supplier through Wine Searcher and at first glance it is a deli in East London (North London? where's the boundary?) but seems to be the hub of something much more interesting. Have a look at Portuguese Conspiracy to see what I mean.

Rather like week R (2014) the red grape I have selected this week is best known for its use in the production of pink wines. Espadeiro is a native of the cool climate region of Northern Portugal most famous for the white wines of Vinho Verde, of which we have sampled a couple on our journey to date. This then is the third visit to Vinho Verde, but this time we are in the pink.

Week E (2014) Arca Nova Rose, Vinho Verde DOC 2013. Portuguese Conspiracy £10.50

I doubt that this is an interesting observation, certainly not useful, but the first thing that I noticed when opening the wine was how small the cork was. I reckon it was a good centimeter shorter than the average. Is this because the wine is intended to be drunk young? Is it a new, more efficient type of cork? Is it just saving cost? I doubt it is the last of these as the bottle was quite substantial compared to some. Probably none of the above, and I am sorry to have mentioned it.

There's no doubting that this a rose wine. It is a beautifully vivid pink, the colour of fresh strawberry juice. On pouring into the glass you get the little spritzy bubbles typical of the region's produce which make the wine not so much sparkling as prickly and exciting.

It is off-dry, but a long way from the sickly sweet pinks beloved of young ladies, and it has the aromas and flavours to match the expectations that may have been set by the colour. Fresh red summer fruits and nicely balanced acidity.

At 11.5% abv and with that appealing spritz this would make a great wine for a warm summer evening, or perhaps a lazy afternoon picnic.

Vinho Verde is despite its reputation for white wines (the name itself means 'green wine') produces a wide range of styles. The producer of this range, Arca Nova, is Quinta das Arcas who make one other range in Vinho Verde and two more in Alentejo, which is a warmer region further south. They also produce cheese, olive oil and Brandy.

I really like this week's selection and am suitably intrigued by the idea of the Conspiracy that I think I will be exploring further.

Dona Blanca

Having failed this time last year, Week D (2013) to find a white wine made with a grape variety starting with 'D', I allowed my heart to rule my head and paid rather more than usual (twice?) to observe the pointless rules of my equally pointless game.

Last week as I was in the area I popped in to Fortnum & Mason to see if they might have something a little unusual beginning with D from, perhaps Greece or Bulgaria (Debina or Dimiat, respectively). I told the sales assistant what I was looking for and she got quite excited. F&M don't stock wines from her home land but she thanked me for taking an interest in the wines from Bulgaria and directed me to a shop in Bayswater that might help. It didn't, so in the spirit of never going back, I continued round the Circle Line to South Ken and went to The Sampler. I had seen on their website that they had just started to stock something that would qualify this week. I was beginning to think that the tubes fares would total more than the cost of the wine, so that's how we have arrived at:

Week D (2104) La Vizcaina, La Del Vivo, Bierzo. 2011. The Sampler £34.20.

This wine is made by Raul Perez who is considered a rising star of Spanish wine-making and comes from his Valtuille winery, part of the Bierzo DO, situated in North West Spain.

It is made with an interesting blend of varieties: 80% Dona Blanca, 10% Godello, 10% Palomino.

The first of these has been grown across the Minho river in Portugal for years and has long been a component of white Port. It seems that white Port is suffering a dip in its popularity and the growers of Dona Blanca (or Dona Branco, in Portugal) are now turning to producing dry table wines.

The second of these, Godello, is a more widely known grape of the region and makes very respected and increasingly fashionable wines.

Palomino has something in common with Dona Blanca in that it also features prominently in the production of another fortified wine from the Iberian peninsular; Sherry.

Our wine is unfortified, dry and intensely flavoured with apple and stone fruit tones. There are also signs of oak ageing, especially in the lengthy finish. It is a deep almost golden, lemon yellow colour which come from the grapes thick skins.

Full bodied and flavoursome it is the fruit and 13.5% alcohol that are nicely balanced, but it also has sufficient acidity to make the mouth water.

I don't know if this is a small production wine, but suspect that may be the case. If so, that may explain why the small print on the side of the label, where the information made compulsory by the EU has been squeezed, describes the contents of the bottle as 'red Spanish wine! 

Cabernet Franc

The One gave me a present, on the occasion of our fourth wedding anniversary, of a silver wine bottle stopper engraved on the top with the words 'Life is a Cabernet'. (The connection being that four years' marital bliss is traditionally celebrated with a gift associated in some way to fruit and flowers.) It's a nice play on words and a nice thought, but is also a conundrum. Which Cabernet?

I would suggest that, generally, when most people hear 'Cabernet' they expect that it is an abbreviation for 'Cabernet Sauvignon', the world-dominating red grape from Bordeaux. But this week we are tasting not that vinous globe-trotter but one of its parents.

As with most living things Cabernet Sauvignon has two parents, but what is something of a surprise is that while the parent providing the first name is a red variety, the surname comes from a well known and equally world-dominating white grape, Sauvignon Blanc. Which one was the pushy parent, I wonder?

But enough the spouse and precocious progeny, step forward the red parent, take your place under the spotlight and give us a song.

Week C (2014) Santa Rita '120' Cabernet Franc, 2013. Majestic £8.99.

Cabernet Franc, like its famous daughter, is one of classic Bordeaux grapes. Easier to ripen and more tolerant of lesser vineyard sites it now continues to play its part in the recipe for Claret alongside CS, Merlot, Petit Verdot and very occasionally, Malbec. But like Malbec, which emigrated to Argentina, it has found more success away from the family farm. In the case of Cabernet Franc is has moved successfully to the Loire valley and also further afield to various new world sites.

This week's choice comes from the Santa Rita vineyards of Chile's Central Valley.

It is a soft, fruity, easy drinking red wine, with flavours of red fruits (did someone say Raspberry?) and it has a smooth texture with silky tannins and well-balanced acidity. It has 13.5% abv, but this is not too noticeable and certainly couldn't be criticised for being 'hot' (a winey term for too alcoholic). There is a floral quality that I like and a flavour that I recognise as Cabernet Franc but can't describe anymore helpfully than that. Sorry.

I tasted this over a couple of evenings and it retained its freshness overnight and had possibly opened up a little (became more flavoursome) by the return visit.

The brand '120' is a reference to a bit of history from the struggle for Chilean independence in the early part of the 19th C, when following a hard day's struggle a band of 120 patriots took refuge in the estate's cellars. As with Week E (2013) and Week H (2014) we again find an historical link between red wine, courage and heroic behaviour. That's enough encouragement for me and I will do what I can to ensure I don't risk letting the side down, should the time come, by not having put in the necessary preparation.

Boal

I don't like to boast about it, but I went to Oxford. The city of dreaming spires where great academics throughout the centuries have discovered, invented and written things that have changed the world. Yes, I went there, too. In fact, I went there more than once, most recently with some good friends just this last weekend.

Whilst there we relived some of the magical student days that I never had, playing bridge and croquet, eating and drinking and generally messing about on the river. During the last of these I discovered a previously un-researched  law of fluid dynamics, involving a punt, a beer bottle and a low bridge. I also discovered that while the English don't have a direct equivalent of the German word schadenfreude they do have a capacity for it.

An accidental discovery involving boats also played an important role in the development of the fortified wines from the island of Madeira, referred to these days as 'Madeira'. More of that later, but those wines are made from a handful of grapes varieties one of which is Boal. Hence:

Week B (2014) Barbeito Boal 5 year Old Reserva Madeira NV. Uncorked £13.85 50cl.

The accidental discovery concerning Madeira wine was that, contrary to the usual wine keeping advice which recommends storage in a dark, constantly cool environment and avoiding unnecessary movement, these wines would actually improve through rough treatment. Specifically, as far back as the late 18th C wines would be fortified with grape spirit to make them stable, in the same way that Port was treated before shipment to England, stored in barrels and taken on ships to be sold in the new world. The unsold portion would remain on the ship and make the return trip to Madeira still in the hot and rolling conditions of the ship's hold. The makers noticed that the wine that had been put through this unfortunate experience actually tasted better than the same wines that had sat in the warehouses on shore for the same period.

This discovery lead to a unique process that involves heating the wine at the start of its maturation through one of three methods. The first involves stainless steel tanks and a heating coil, the second deploys steam heated storage rooms and the third uses warehouses heated only by natural sunshine. Each successive method is more expensive and time consuming, so it generally follows that the better wines are produced through the last of these which is called 'canteiro'.

Our bottle contains a blend of canteiro aged wines, at least five years old. It is made with 100% Boal. Other varieties are used giving increasing degrees of sweetness and this 'reserva' has 88 gm/l of residual sugar making it medium sweet.

It is a beautiful golden tawny colour and looks bright and inviting. It has aromas of burnt toffee and baked apple and tastes of caramel, bitter marmalade underpinned by the nuttiness of oxidation.

I have had just the one small glass (really) and found it very moreish, mouth-watering and very lengthy. It has  a gently warming 18% abv. and makes an appetising alternative to both Port and sweet sherry. I could become a fan.