Tinto y Blanco- Adventures in Spanish Wine

Quinta do Ameal Loureiro 2007

By Dave Worthington ⋅ October 7, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Like much of Rias Briaxa, Vinho Verde had a very good quality vintage in 2007. This wine really shows it off, it’s vibrant and character filled but remains easy to drink and excellent with food. This is perfect for lazy sunday drinking, I have but this to the test a couple of times now…

Quinta do Noval Masterclass

By Dave Worthington ⋅ August 26, 2008 ⋅ 7 comments

A last minute invitation got me into a Quinta do Noval Masterclass a couple of weeks. A great opportunity to have a look at just about all of the current releases and a few back vintages, including a couple of vintages of the revered Nacional Vintage Port.

Vintage Cellars Tasting

By Dave Worthington ⋅ July 29, 2008 ⋅ One comment

Last Wednesday night I took a short trip out to Camberwell to taste through most Vintage Cellar’s Spanish and Portugues range. Its quite a big range and it’s fairly much all come about in the past year, increasing from about 7 wine to around 30 with more on the way. A few Tinto y Blanco readers came along for the fun, which was great.

Van Zellers Douro 2005

By Dave Worthington ⋅ July 29, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments

This is a project from Christiano van Zellar of Quinta do Vale Dona Maria, a field blend red wine from the Douro that uses grapes from outside Quinta. Thats about all I know, a quick bit of work on google didn’t really show up much except for a couple of good scores from TWA and WS for the 2004.

Wine from Dão - an Alvaro Castro Tasting

By Dave Worthington ⋅ June 20, 2008 ⋅ One comment

Last week I dropped into the Spanish Acquisition HQ for a bit of Jamon and ended up tasting a whole heap of stuff including a selection of wines from Alvaro Castro from the Dão region in Portugal. This lot are not currently being imported, but I’m sure it won’t be long before we’ll be seeing a few of these around town. The wines were served up single blind (we knew they were Alvaro Castro’s wines, but not which ones). I don’t have a lot of info on these wines or the region, but Jamie Goodie has a good overview of the region, including a bit on Alvaro Castro and his vineyards. Overall, I’d summarise the wines as very elegant and balanced, at the same time there is plenty of fruit too.

Luis Pato Vinha Barrosa 2005

By Dave Worthington ⋅ June 16, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

This is the older brother of the Vinha Pan, its made from 80 year old vines and this extra vine age really shows in the resulting wine. Its more deeply flavoured and meaty. Its starting to edge towards full bodied as well. This is my pick of the two, but it’s like splitting hairs really.

Luis Pato Vinha Pan 2005

By Dave Worthington ⋅ June 11, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I had a look at the 2003s of both these wines last year and was very impressed, but the wines were not being imported at the time. They are now being imported and the 2005s have just arrived, and boy are they good. I’ve seen them at a couple of tastings now, and the crowd reaction seems to be you either love them or can’t stand them. Personally, I’m a big fan of medium bodied wines with plenty of character and that describes these wines to a tee.

Niepoort LBV 2003

By Dave Worthington ⋅ June 3, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

After a week off from drinking, I thought I’d ease myself back into tasting with a bottle of port and some blue cheese on Sunday afternoon. The cheese is Valdeon, made in the Picos de Europa areas of Léon and Asturias from mostly cows milk, with a little bit of goat for tang. It’s fairly punchy, but still quite creamy. It goes well with the quince paste and port, so I’m a happy chap.

Quinta D.Vale Maria Vintage Port 2005

By Dave Worthington ⋅ May 22, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Vintage Port is one of my favourite wine styles, but I don’t always want to wait 15 years for them to really show their stuff. I drank this over a week and was very impressed with how drinkable this wine is now and how much the wine improved dramatically each night. You can definitely drink this now and get huge enjoyment out of it.

Niepoort Ruby Port

By Dave Worthington ⋅ May 16, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

Ruby Port is considered to be the lowest level of the Port tree, but there are some good ones out there. Its called ruby port because it is usually stored in a way that prevents oxygen contact, and therefore keeps its colour better than a tawny port which is aged in oak. The result is generally a very sweet wine that has very dark, almost black, colour and plenty of fruit character.

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