Wines of Portugal & Madeira

              Wines of Portugal & Madeira

Wines of Portugal

Known and sold under Port Wine. The southern part of Portugal is known for good climate, which is favourable for viticulture many red and white and rose wines are produced annually. They are most common in quality and enjoy a universal reputation.

Principle regions of Portugal

Principle regions of Portugal:

Porto e Douro: Famous for Port, produces Table wines, [red, white and rose wines]    

Setúbal: famous and well known for fortified wines, Moscate De Setúbal. Also home for the best two wines produces in Portugal.

e.g: João Pires

       José-Maria Da Fonseca


Some famous wines of Portugal are:

E.g.:  Sparkling rosé Lancer

Muscat Branco---white wine

Quinta Da Anfora—red wine

Quinta Da Bacalhôa—red wine

Port: They are an established, fortified wine. All wines labeled as port come from port producing area of Portugal. 

Harvesting of Grapes:  picking starts in the end of Sep., or beginning of Oct., When they are fully ripe. These fruits are transferred into a large stone trough called, “Lager’ holding, 1 thousand -2 thousand gallons of grapes and is 3 feet deep

Pressing: In these lagers grapes are crushed by treading, without crushing skins or stalks to prevent excess tannin, and is left to ferment together.

Fermentation: Natural fermentation takes place, and the correct amount of sugar is tested. [50% of sugar is converted into alcohol].The must is strained off into tunnels into large vats called ‘Tonets’, and a little Brandy is for fortification and to stop further fermentation.

Racking: The wine is left to rest through out the winter and is racked in the spring season, for transport to the shipper’s lodges [shipper’s warehouse] at Oporto to be matured, and blended with other wine in some cases
The name Port has been originated from Oporto and not Portugal as is a common belief.

Port is shipped for export and contains high % of alcohol. Port is blended by shippers

                                      Types of Port

Vintage port                                                  Wood Port

 Matured in Bottles                               Matured in wooden casks     

Matured in wood

          

Rose wine

                         
Vintage port: Vintage port is not made every year, only when the shippers think that the quality of a particular wine is good enough, they will declare it a Vintage. Port is declared only 3-4 times a decade.

This is a wine of 1yr only and bottled after 2 yrs of maturation, and allowed to mature in bottles for at least 15yrs.  It leaves sediment and needs to be decanted. Vintage port deteriorates rapidly after decanting and should be consumed immediately.

Vintage port is deep purple or ruby in colour, sweet and full bodied, alcoholic content of 20-22% abv.

Late Bottled Vintage:   [LBV], Port of a single year, but bottled for 5yrs.reading for drinking after bottling. It has the date of vintage and year of bottling on the label.

  

Vintage Port

Wood Port:    Crusted Port,   Ruby Port,   Tawny Port,   White Port.

Crusted Port: It is blended wine of more than 1yr., matured in wood for 2-3yrs.,bottled and matured for another 2yrs. It throws a crust [sediment] requires careful handling and decanting, like Vintage port

Ruby Port: A blends of young red Ports, left in casks for about 4-8yrs., finned with egg white or isinglass, this process takes 3 weeks and leaves clear bright port. Ready to drink at an age of 5yrs, not expensive as other port, has a fruity flavour, don’t improve in bottles, should

Tawny Port: A blend of Port wines left for 7-20yrs, ready for drinking as soon as it is bottled, they get a Brown hue due to being left in a wooden cask for many years.   

Cheaper versions are made from young red and white wines of not great aged, which gives the colour, but not the quality and flavour of old tawny.

White Port: Made from white grapes, is sweet, popular as an aperitif.

Lisbon Red:  Produced out side the Douro district, Douro banks, slope towards the Douro River, soil is rich in potassium and poor in nitrogen and lime, having a hard schist of the mountain side, the best port is produced from the harvest with a small produce.

A considerable quantity is exported to Britain and is known as ‘Aslibson Red’

Some Port wines are bottled and left to mature for 10-20yrs or even up to 40yrs.
Some wines need at least 8-10yrs to mature and drink. As wine ages it gains character and distinction

 Ports are excellent with cheese and sweet course, also used in the kitchen to make sauces, jellies etc.

Name of Port Shippers and Producers:

Cockburn

Graham

Mackenzie

Sandeman

Dow’s

CroftWood Houes etc.

Madeira: a volcanic island off the coast of Morocco. It has a unique character having fruitiness of Port and a tonic tang of sherry.. Madeira means’ wood’, referring to the thick layer of fertile potash soil, ash from the burnt tress 500yrs ago.

madeira

Madeira involves a process which is unique in wine making, i.e.: ‘Baking the wine’, once fermentation is finished the wine is placed in the warm rooms called ‘Estufas’ [like ovens] .Where the temp. Is to 56º C, this process was discovered during shipping Madeira; it improved its flavour due to exposure to high temperatures.

Varieties of Madeira wine: Madeira wines are named after the grapes they are being produced,

Sercial: Light, white wine, with distinctive sharp flavour, ranges from golden to pale colour.

Verdelho: Golden, medium dry, soft dessert wine.

Bual:      It is rich, fruity, full bodied wine, sweet like desert wine.

Malmsey: A soft rich, luscious wine. 

Uses: Can be served as an aperitif
Sweet ones can be served as dessert wine,

Popular as Tonic wine, because of presence of minerals,

Asubstitute for sherry,
As an accompaniment with soup and Madeira cake.

Producers and Shippers

Producers and Shippers: 
Blandy

Cossart Gordon
Leacock,
Poewr Drury,
Rutherford and Miles.

Wines of Spain

  Wines of Spain

Spain is the 3^rd largest producer of wines in the world. [Red and White wines] The war climate is not very favourable, still the grapes flourish vigorously and are richer therefore the resulting wine produced has high alcoholic strength.

The reputation of Spanish wines is, unique in quality. Rioja and Uat de Penas are similar to Claret, but harsher and more astringent in quality.
The Spanish climate is not conducive for white wine.

Sherry is the most popular wine of Spain, has strong colour, high alcohol and abundant flavor.

SHERRY: it is a famous white wine of Spain, from the south western corner of Spain, called Andalucía, in the centre of is the main town

             Sherry is a triangle from 3 Spanish towns in Andalucía:

                                   Jerez de Frontera,
                                      
Sanlúcar de Barrameda,                        Puerto de Santa Maria

Wines made outside these limits are not called sherry.
E.g.Montilla [13-16% alcohol], these are pale dry white wines, never fortified, cannot be called sherry, extremely popular in southern Spain, fermented in earthen ware called ‘Tinajas’
A Montillado sherry takes its name from mantilla wines, it means in style of Montilla

There are 2 types of Sherry

FINO group OLOROSO group

Finos: The finos are pale, dry and delicate, but not thin, with a medium body. It is an elegant and sharp and excessively clear finish, not bitter a wine of Jerez. The finos develop after the appearance of an unusual phenomenon. It is FLOR, the yeast crust, which forms on the surface of the wine in some casks. The flor has the effect of excluding oxygen from the wine keeping it pale in colour. They are taken with soups or as aperitifs.

This group includes Manzanilla, the driest of all wines from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, it has characteristic flavor, attributed to sea air, which contributes to the fragrance, lightness and slightly bitter tonic pale in colour, very dry and very light, because flor being able to form throughout the year due to mild temperature.

Amontillado, most popular of all dry sherries, not so pale and dry, full bodied, has an attractive nutty bouquet and flavour of its own, they have a dark colour with age, Amontillado is used in England to cover blends of sherry.

Vido de pasto: Least typical of dry sherries, least expensive, all-purpose table wine, pale golden colour, not so sweet, rather dry.

These wines have 15% alcohol content

OLOROSO group: These are Sherries where flor has not occurred.

a.     Amoroso: It is a medium dry golden wine of full body and nuttiness. It is considered as intermediate all purpose Sherry.

b.     Oloroso: A deeper golden wine, which can be quite dry, but fairly sweet. It has full body and is nutty it has more body and less aroma than Finos.

c.      Cream: A rich golden sweet, soft wine of full body.

 d. Brown: This is a dark walnut brown, very sweet of full bodied
      nuttiness.

      e. Palo Cortado: these are quite rare and much sought after. They   
           are made from wine which attracted flor originally, but, which die

         off early. Instead of becoming fino it becomes an oloroso. These
         wines are very expensive.

d.     Raya: It is a lower quality wine and is used to make cheaper brands. They are made by adding sweetening or colouring to the wine.These is often sold as Cream Sherries.
The Olorosos have 18% alcohol content, the extra alcohol lkills he flor in Olorosos which continue for18 months in Finos.

USES:

1.Pale dry Sherries like Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado are ideal appetizers before meals or with hors ď œuvre or soup.

2. The richer Oloroso can be served after dinner.

3. It can be used in mixed drinks, like cooler, cobbler or flip.

4. It is an economical wine, as bottle once opened does not deteriorate,
    can be kept and b some other time.

5. It is used as an accompaniment with shellfish based soups like green
    turtle soup.

Sherry often deposits fairly substantial sediment. This is cream of tartar, which is natural to wine. Allow the bottle to stand up for an hour; the sediment will fall to the bottom of the bottle

Sherry GRAPES [Palomina]

Palomina Grapes

Grapes: Grapes are very sweet and small, they are thick clusters trailed low to get sun rays and heat from the baked earth at nights. Grapes are not hurried for pressing; they are spread on straw mats and covered with dry grass and uncovered soon as the sun shines. In this process some moisture evaporates.

Pressing: It is a closet in a shape of a long building with thick walls, made from stone; mere slits are kept for light to come in not the sun. This kind of press is called ‘Lager’ [10sqft], which holds 150lbs of grapes.
The palomino grapes contain cream of tartar which is broken down to ‘Gypsum o Calcium Sulphate’ [yeso] to form tartaric acid and increasing acidity and natural sweetness this process is called plastering. After plastering, the must is left to ferment in casks [butts] and left to open air, as a result fermentation lasts a long time [3months], wine is allowed to remain in the casks3-4yrs and classified.
The wine is racked into new casks to leave sediment behind. A white film or a soft crust appears on the surface of the wine, known as ‘Flor’. The flor is essential to make fine dry sherry. This is the phenomena that give Finos its unique character.

Wines that develop thick flor will become Finos.
Wine that have none or extremely little flor will be Olorosos.
Now the wine is transported to ‘Bodega’ [stores above ground level]

Wine is classified by experts for its quality, he marks the barrels with:
One stroke for the best
Two strokes for medium
Three strokes for the least good which will be distilled to brandy.

Graded wines are drawn to fresh casks and fortified with Spanish brandy.
Wines are tasted, graded and left to develop. The wine is subjected to ‘Solera’ process of maturing and blending.

Solera

There are many soleras in a bodega; the casks are stacked one on top of another n a pyramid, 3-4 casks high, with the oldest at the bottom casks
In this a series of casks are replenished from one cask to another cask starting from top to bottom.

When Sherry is used for bottling or shipping it is drawn from the oldest barrels from the bottom, they are replenished from the next oldest one until ‘Criada’ or nursery barrels are filled up with young wine. The casks are always filled not less 2/3^rd,

The evaporation is great and the casks to be replenished constantly, when sherry is drawn completely it is free of sugar and then clarified with egg whites.

Oloroso Sherry is sweetened with a heavy sweet wine. Sherry is a blended wine, the consistency is maintained. Sherry wines are matured for as long as 15yrs.

Soloeras go into a composition of a single shipment.

Malaga: Shipped from the port of Malaga. The best known fortified wine, it is a desert wine, White wine from coast of Andalusian coast, it is light or dark brown in colour, very sweet and delicate, moderately priced, blended on solera system, The fermented grape juice, 5% alcohol is added and then it is enriched with Vino Tierno, [wine made from grapes, dried in the sun], or Vino Maestro [wine to which alcohol is added to stop fermentation], Vino De Color is added to increase the body. The wine is racked, finned and blended and is different from sherry, generally sweeter

Tarragona: Red wine from Calatonia, largely exported to other countries. They resembles Port wine, are inferior in quality and cheaper in price.

Wine laws of Spain

Wine laws of Spain:  Institute de Denominacion de Origen [INDO], equivalent of French AC guarantees the place of origin.

The Spanish laws are not as stringent as AOC but wines labeled 

DO mean guaranteed standard.

soleras in a bodega

VINO DE MESA: Term used for Spanish table wine.