Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Saturday 31 October 2009

#EWBC: Charles Metcalfe – star tasting of Portuguese wines

Cult of the wine critic: Charles Metcalfe addressing his followers!

To round off the 2nd European Wine Bloggers Conference Charles Metcalfe tutored a brilliant tasting of eight Portuguese wines, which had a very high strike rate.

These are the wines that most impressed me:
Whites:

Covela Escolha 2008
Made mainly from a blend of Avesso and Chardonnay with a small percentage of Gewurztraminer, this quite aromatic wine has an attractive combination of weight and mineral freshness in the finish.


Quinta do Termos Fonte Cal Reserva 2007
100% Fonte Cal giving weight and concentration but with some minerality in the finish. More evidence of the quality of an increasing number Portuguese whites these days.

Reds:

Afros Vinhão 2008
From the Vinho Verde, Vinhão is a tenturier grape with very high acidity. Made by Vasco Croft, whose estate is in conversion to biodynamics, this has 12.5% alcohol and 7g of acidity. The wine has sufficient concentration of fruit to make this work. Charles recommends this with grilled sardines. I fancy it would also work well with roast suckling pig.


Barranco Longo Reserva 2006
From the Algarve – sweet toasty, plum and prune fruit balanced by acidity and a touch of leafiness in the finish.


Madeira Barbeito Boal 2001
Lovely new style Madeira from single white variety – Barbeito – nutty concentration with quite austere concentration in the finish. Beautiful complex wine.

Each wine is linked to the Adegga site, which provides links and details on the wines.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

After my #1 passion the Loire, Portugal is right up there. Especially some of the whites! My fave store has a co-owner from Portugal so no wonder eh.

Alberta Bob

Jim's Loire said...

Bob. Glad you are a fan of Portuguese wine, too.