Esporao Alandra Branco 2012: a sustainably made great value Portuguese white

Cambridge Wine Merchants are running a series of free tastings and events throughout July to highlight wines which have been made sustainably. A midday wine fair on 27 July at their Cherry Hinton Road branch will focus on the principles of biodynamics and organic winemaking (click here for details).

They sent three sustainably made Iberian whites my way this week – hurrah! Pictured, they were:

Esporao Alandra Branco 2012 (Alentejo)

Esporao Duas Castas Semillon/Viosinho 2011 (Alentejo)

Torres Habitat Organic White 2012 (Catalunya)

And it gets better. The least expensive wine won my vote! At £6.50, characterful Esporao’s Alandra offers great body and bite, with really good drive to its refreshing, dry, salty green olive palate. Bring on the sardines!

Esporao Duas Castas (£9.99) is a Semillon/Viosinho blend. While Australian Chief Winemaker succeeds in bringing out Semillon’s delicious toast and lemon butter, down south in Alentejo the Viosinho doesn’t manage to attain the freshness of which it’s capable in the Douro, so the wine is a touch flabby.

The all creatures great and small Torres’ bottle design gets my vote and it’s easily the most aromatic of the trio, with lifted, estery/floral notes. However, in terms of flavour profile, while pleasant enough, this melony Garnacha Xarel.lo is a tad neutral and, for my palate, the residual sugar is too pronounced. Not what I would expect from this price point (£10.99).

Returning to the sustainability theme, Esporao scooped the Sustainability Award in The Drinks Business International Green Awards 2013. Where protecting the environment usually headlines sustainability policies, I was intrigued to see that top of Esporao’s list on their “journey to sustainability” is paying suppliers a fair price and paying before the stipulated deadline.

As you can see (here) it remains a hot topic in the trade and one which Richard Mayson raises in his “living the dream” article in the current edition of The World of Fine Wine. Focused on his Alentejo winemaking venture, he reports on Portugal’s “dismal” economic outlook – I was very sorry to learn that my favourite Alentejo restaurant Tomba Lobos (dishes pictured here) has closed.

Quality has a price. I applaud Esporao’s focus on economic, not just environmental, sustainability and it’s good to see that Cambridge Wine Merchants’ activities this month also aim to promote independent local businesses.