The taste of Alentejo

In Portugal even in the most densely populated area (aka the suburbs) one can find a small neighborhood that is easily identifiable with a province region. Almada on the south bank of Tagus river just in front of Lisbon - the capital - is where I live for a couple of years.

Here there is a core of Alentejo and Algarve natives that moved in the 1950's and 1960's searching for a better life.

That wave of immigration for the Portuguese late blooming industry - at the time in boat construction and associated manufacturing - spawned the construction of new neighorhoods and businesses some of them that managed to thrive to our days.

Saturday early morning is a good time to get out of bed and go into the senior citizen filled streets, hit the markets and the delicatessens.

And... the Alentejo region is quite imprinted in these neighborhoods in the form of dedicated delicatessens.

In these shops you can find the best in the Alentejo region gastronomy and I'm lucky to have two of these shops at a 5 minute walking distance from my doorstep.

These two shops are a great source of wine and other goodies coming from this slow-paced region that is Alentejo. The next blogs reviews are going to address the multitude of wines that you can find there.

Stay tuned, folks!

Encosta da Serra White

After an extended halt on the reviews - that doesn't mean that wine has not been consumed in the middle - we're back to the world of tetra brick packaged wine.

Today's subject is the White counterpart of Encosta da Serra Red.

Visually it has a nice appeal. It seduces the eye with a nice and open gold-straw yellow in the glass.

On the nose something is quite wrong... what at beggining seems like a hard citrous scent turns out to something similar to a young vinegar. Picture a heavy iron 'perfume' - think of a railway yard where in a nearby track a train set has just performed an emergency break - telling me that some oxidation or another strange chemical reaction is taking place here.

I've even poured it in to another glass just to make sure that the washing had nothing to do with it. In the mouth terror ensues... and its proven. Greatly unbalanced, the iron taste is not negligible accompanied by citrus notes and an all over the palate watery sensation.

The wine is very short, 1/4 tongue tops and leaves an apple aftertaste. At all a true zurrapa. It gets 2 and not a 1 of ultimate zurrapa because of the good visual and the citric aromas and palate that somewhat manages to appear.

Stay tuned for the next tastings involving wine from local Alentejo region delicatessens that populate the Lisbon metropolitan area.

More Wine tastings are on the way, faithful readers!

Vinha do Marco White

When strolling around the supermarket shelves in mainland Portugal - the Madeira and Azores islands supermarkets and respective wines must be left to another post when I've got the opportunity to visit them again - one can notice that from each supermarket chain to another there are some household wine names that immediately strike the pattern of the low cost - and sometimes low quality - wine.

The Vinha do Marco is one of those wine brands known for its not so good quality, among others that are going to subject of analysis by this blog.

This Vinha do Marco presents itself with a light citrus yellow color - a little touch of gold here and there - resembling a diluted watercolor. In the nose, as it gets warmer, good floral, lemony and voluptuous tropical fruit aromas mixed with fresh melon scents. In the mouth its very fresh, average balance, where one can notice some light tropical fruit but the resilient acidity in the final part of the tasting does not help to get it up a notch and therefore one cannot expect too much from this wine from such low price it bears in the label.

Although it deserves a 8.5 and one can say it is almost a zurrapa. Saved by the smell... lost by the acidity.

AVIN0767795630231

Adega Camolas Red

Today I'm going to make way to the first reader suggested tasting.

The wine in question is an Adega Camolas and was brougth to my presence by Afonso Tavares a faithful reader and colleague from Setubal a medium city 60 kilometers South of Lisbon, also known for plenty and good wines.

This wine has story: it is produced by an Afonso's friend's family in an 'adega' in the Palmela region near Setubal. The producer usually sells some of the production in the local market and open heartedly distributes some bottles to family friends. It turns out not all of this wine is immediatly drunk and some bottles are forgotten somewhere on a dusty cellar or basement. This happened to Afonso and he was glad to let me taste it. Soon you'll understand why.

Colorwise it has a quite faded red almost turning ligth brown what generally is not a good omen for what is going to happen in the mouth. Nosewise it presents some strong mineral aromas that sometimes make way to some hard vegetable notes.

On the mouth my fears have been confirmed: even though it shows some frail fruit - ligth strawberry - and even some vanilla it rapidly goes in to some sour and very acid tastes. It leaves the mouth dry and its quite unpleasant to the palate. If it serves any purpose it goes up half a tongue.

I believe that this wine has been way too much time waiting to be drunk - i believe it is a wine to be consumed while in its infancy mostly due to being an amateur production - and did not age well because... its not made to age.

I give it the lowest rank (1 out of 20) but with the remark that it should be tasted at maximum 2 years after its production.

Avin: AVIN6043550670365

Encosta da Serra Red

Lets step back to wines from cartonland.

Today's special is 'Encosta da Serra' red. Once again packed in a carton with an easy to open fashion, but with the perk of having a Tetra Prisma hexagonal shape. Swanky!

It has a pretty closed strong red with hints of violet. And to be honest it starts on the wrong foot. Even at 10ºC it has a strong alcoholic and, how should I name it... rancid nose. Yes rancid like it has been through an strong oxidation process. Imagine a rusty piece of pointy metal and stick it some centimeters away from your nose and you've got it right. Letting it warm up a bit the picture does not get better in the frame and it just spews out vegetable and olive like scents from the glass.

Something tells me that it going to be a nightmare in the mouth...

Bingo! Tasted around 17ºC its awful in the mouth.. really awful! Starting by the gigantically unbalanced acidity, that will leave your taste buds asking for mercy. Nothing else can be distinguished in the palate besides the already mentioned acidity and the strong alcoholic traits.

On the package side it has the nerve to inform us of the following:

For those less proficient in the Portuguese language here goes my rough translation:

"Encosta da Serra is a wine of excellent quality produced from the finest grape types.

It's pleasant aroma is at your table thanks to this package specially conceived to guarantee the best protection against light and air.

Easy to transport and to store, this package seals in its interior all the original richness that best describes this Encosta da Serra wine."

Even for someone with few experience with the wine tasting knows that some of the text in the side of the carton does not check with reality, specially what is concerned with the 'pleasant aroma'.

The package doesn't even mention from

we're on earth the grapes came from - let me remind you that the 'Casal da Eira' had the

dignity to inform you that you're about to consume a wine produced with wines from different wineries

of the European Union.

It holds slightly better when accompanied with the chicken vindaloo cooked earlier but that

doesn't make it any good.

You better forget this even for cooking unless you're dealing with a very strongly scented

meat - wild boar, hare, pheasant or deer just to name a few.

I'm proud to attribute my lowest rank (1) making this one the mighty king of zurrapas to

date.

Casal da Eira Red revisited

Remember the wine that had the privilege of doing the honours of this blog's opening?

Well he is back... partially back. I've stored the remaining wine inside the carton in the back of the fridge to make it once again the main star of my Homemade Portuguese style Vindaloo chicken.

All you need:

• leftover bad wine (zurrapa) al gusto
• minimum 5 minced garlic cloves
• paprika al gusto
• salt and pepper al gusto
• 1 or 2 laurel leaves al gusto

The result of the wine recycling can be seen in the video right after the jump.

Lezíria White

Lets set the carton boxed wines for a moment and give way for the first bottled zurrapa candidate. Besides I've got some carton wine options in stock in the refrigerator as I type so don't distress.

Lets proceed to taste the Lezíria White (no year) produced by the Adega Cooperativa de Almeirim, coming directly from the Ribatejo hot plains bordered by the Tagus river in the North.

It shows off a dark citrus colour filled with golden tones and with hints of ligth green.

At 7-8 ºC a very intense citric aroma like you're peeling a lemon but more acidulate. As the temperature rises it starts showing some signs of tropical fruit but yet undefined. Waiting for it to reach the 15ºC nothing more defined comes into the nose fruit wise.

On the mouth some consistent tropical fruits can be grasped but only on the first 2 seconds after the entry. After that one can feel some high acidity specially on the sides of the tongue - where in theory it should be sensed - but not that high that it turns unbearable. It travels consistently up to half a tongue leaving a sligth creamy note over it. It leaves a vegetable aftertaste in the palate.

For the first bottle review of a candidate zurrapa i'm dissapointed in a good way because it was indeed an acceptable wine. Does not go up in the scale because of the acidity and the nose / mouth unbalance. Above of all its a fair wine that pairs good with a grilled fish with a high fat content or even some fried fish.