My Top 5 Wines of the Year: Portugal

They say that life’s too short to drink bad wine, less still to write about it too!

With the exception of lesser vintages in vertical reports, I rate highly every wine which makes its way onto my website, so it’s no easy task to select my top wines of the year.

Here’s my top five for Portugal from a year in which I was mighty struck  – bowled over actually – by some of its traditional strengths.

Bussaco Tinto Reservado 2005

Bussaco Palace Hotel a.k.a. Scooby Doo towers to yours truly is a manueline gothic confection in the midst of a rather spooky forest.  We adjourned to the cellar for an atmospheric vertical tasting of reds and whites back to the 1950s (pictured) – memorable! With its ripe but present tannins – very 2005 – this pioneering blend of Baga and Touriga Nacional is a sensual beauty, with a lovely, deeply floral nose of rock rose and incense spice, which heady perfume infuses the palate, together with spicy liquorice. Long, long, this wine has an ethereal cathedral-like quality, such is it lift, presence, dimension and genuflect-inducing powers – most fitting for a hotel which, converted from a royal hunting lodge, was conceived as “a cathedral of wine.”  Click here for my report of the vertical.  Exclusively sold at Bussaco Palace Hotel.

A.A. Ferreira Garrafeira Vintage Port 1863

In March, presenting at the 1.º Encontro e Prova Internacional de Vinho in Beira in Celorico da Beira was my passport to a unique tasting of 40 old & rare fortified wines.  The Douro’s and Porto’s Head of the Institute of Wine Tasting, Bento Amaral, explained that this wine is, by the skin of its teeth, made from pre-phylloxera vines – 1863 was the year when it’s reckoned phylloxera came to the Douro at Quinta dos Montes in Gouvinhas. It was a year with very hot weather until the end of August and, according to Ernest Cockburn, one of the best in the history of Port. Back then, the Port classification didn’t exist so apparently this wine was known as a “novelty” wine. Amaral suspects it probably spent 4-6 years in cask (whereas vintage port must be bottled between 2-3 years of vintage). It’s also possible that this wine contains white grapes. Hazy with a pale pinky/yellow hue, saffron core and green/gold rim its appearance hints at the elegance to come. A gently spicy nose shows a rich Madeline egginess/honey glaze even, but there’s a freshness too – this is still very much in the game! In the mouth, it more closely resembles a tawny port with its wonderfully resonant spice, macaroons and cafe crème – an echo of centuries past! Incredibly, far from being attenuated or pinched, it has a girlish fleshiness, with sweet and sour tangy tamarind too. Wonderful.  Click here to read my notes on 39 other rare fortifieds.

Barbeito Malvasia Madeira 1875 (do Garrafão No. 2)

This was my stand out wine of the 1.º Encontro e Prova Internacional de Vinho tasting and the first of five terrific 19th century Madeiras I’ve tasted this year. A very savoury nose and palate with nam pla, green tomatoes and tobacco providing edge and interest to its essence of dried fruits. Though initially a little fiery/warm, it has more than enough intensity of flavour to relegate the spirit to a supporting role – as my notes say “the intensity of flavour is beyond belief.” Impressive but attractive bracing acidity also accounts for its phenomenal length…wow wow wow wow wow!

Blandy’s Bual Madeira 1920

To mark Blandy’s Bicentenary, the company hosted a tasting the most comprehensive range of old and rare vintages ever assembled by the family (fully reported here).  My tasting of the year and this special bicentenary bottling was one of my wines of the year.  Relatively light in colour with a bright saffron edge. Its fresh, focused nose is tight, lifted and pure with an edge of sweet toffee apple. In the mouth it zings and sings, with racy, sweet and sour spine-tingling citrusy acidity. Clear as a bell and with the finest bone structure, it’s possessed of magnificent purity, line and length. A shimmering beauty – outstanding and, with the 1822 Verdelho, a favourite of this very impressive line up. RS 102.48, TA 9.53, pH 3.48.  I am not sure if it is the same bottling, but Fareham Wine Cellar stock Blandy’s 1920 Bual at £420, with the same caveat, it’s £2450/case of 6 at Vintage Seekers.

Blandy’s Verdelho Madeira 1822

Also shown at Blandy’s Bicentenary tasting this Verdelho was amazingly youthful and generous of expression. A fruity nose shows exuberant guava and grapefruit with spicy orange peel notes. In the mouth it’s tremendously smooth and balanced, with smoky, pungent citrus fruit and green tomato. A savoury, extended finish with smoked, salty almonds is animated by a fine spine of acidity. The seamlessness, balance and fruit of this 189 year old wine really give it the wow factor! Jaw droppingly composed for its age. TA 8.92, pH 3.45

Tomorrow, I’ll list my Top Five South African wines; check out my Top Five Australian wines in Wedensday’s blog and yesterday’s blog for my Top Five Loire wines.