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!

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 White

For the second entry I present to you the white counterpart of the inaugural Casal da Eira. Like its ancestor 'bottled' in an easy to open carton.

Shows up the glass with a citric and pale yellow almost transparent 'water-colour' aspect. In the nose a quite fresh and intense lemon mixed with white fruit pulp. Really not bad in the nose given that we are appreciating it at 12ºC. A mere 2ºC above that temperature and the aromas start to go less enjoyable and more acidulate. I wonder how it goes on in the palate...

Here things get quite aggressive. One can feel some inicial citrous freshness but after that hint it all goes pretty much unbalaced and quite but quite quite acidulate. It holds up to 1/2 of tongue and leaves a fresh dangerously bordering the zesty aftertaste.

I think it holds up better in some clams!

In the side of the carton it says it has a citrous colour (checked), fresh (well if you take from the refrigerator it sure is) and fruity. In this last item I cannot be too sure but only if you taste it in the temperature interval between the 10º and 12ºC.

Thinking upon all the white wines I've tasted so far I could not grade anything above 5 for this wine. What saves it from a poorer review is the quite good nose profile below the 12º C or else it would be worse.