April 17, 2014 Tour of the Wine County of Northern Portugal

April 17, 2014 Tour of the Wine County of Northern Portugal

            Yesterday we signed up for an all day tour of the wine country.  At 8:15 our guide, Suzanna, arrived and drove us to pick up the other six persons in a MB van that sat 8 persons.  The other couple, who we could talk to from Columbus, Ohio, were Kathleen and Adam.  There was a couple from Madeira and the other couple was a Swiss man and Belgium woman.  The Swiss man seemed to be the most knowledgeable about wine.  We first drove about 1 ½ hours to the east to the Raposeira Vineyards in Lamego.  Raposeira is known for its sparkling wines.  The vineyard was founded by a French champagne winemaker in 1898.  We toured the entire facility from the area where the grapes are delivered from about 300 growers, through the presses and the fermentation steel tanks, to the caves (storage areas), which seemed to run for miles.   Christiana, the lady who was our guide, said that the constant temperature and humidity in the cave will enhance the wine for years and Raposeira produces three grades of wine reserve, old reserve, and super reserve corresponding to a minimum of 2 years, 4 years and 6 years of aging.  In addition, Raposeira produces a gourmet line of varietals and special wines. 

The first fermentation is relatively short.  Then the wines are bottled with some yeast and sugar and then topped with metal cap that will hold the pressure as the wine generates bubbles.  Christina said the wine will produce 7 bars of pressure.  I am not sure how much that is but it is enough to shoot the plug of sediment out of the bottle when the top of the bottle of wine is frozen and then opened when it is ready for consumption (sale). 

When the plug of sediment is removed from the bottle of wine, there is some nectar, which is sugar and wine, that is added to wine bottle to top off the wine and add sugar if the wine is to be sweet.  No sugar is added to Brut, which has little or no sugary flavor.  Then the bottle is corked and capped with wire to hold the cork in place.

After the tour, we walked across the drive to the tasting room and tasted a brut, which was lovely, then a Blanc de Blanc and finally we requested to taste a Rosé Brut.  No surprise, we loved the Rosé the best, although all the wines were vibrant and bubbly.  We bought 2 bottles of Brut Rosé for 5.50 Euros each.  The wines are made with the traditional local grapes.  The main grape is Malaviha? Fina but there are many others.  Traditionally in Portugal the vineyards were planted with a variety of local grapes and that is what you get most of the time in all the wines.  The next winery in the Douro area described it as vineyard selection.  In other words as grape vines are replaced there is a selection made in the type of grapes to re-plant in the field to create the mixture of grapes that the vineyard thinks will produce the best mixture for their wines.

    Then we drove up the valley further into the Alto Douro which is the farthest of the three Douro areas to a vineyard named Quinta de Tedo located high above the junction of the Douro and the Tedo rivers.

We were given a tour of the aging area by a wonderful guide who knew his wine and the processing of it.  He explained the difference between the three kinds of port: tawny, ruby and vintage.  Generally, tawny is aged in smaller barrels than the ruby port after the initial fermentation.  When the tawny and ruby are bottled they will generally not age much more and should be drunk within about ten to fifteen years.  Alternatively, the vintage ports are ruby ports that have been designated as good years and they are bottled after two years and will age in the bottle for forty or fifty years, getting better and better each year.  The small barrels that tawny is aged in give it a mellow flavor and a lighter brown color and a nutty flavor.  The ruby ports are fruity and very fruity and sweet.

Tedo does not make any white port.  We tasted several different ports: a vintage port from 2011 that was exquisite, a ten year old tawny that was very good, a ruby and a late bottled tawny, plus a very nice red wine.  We then asked about olive oil and the guide’s eyes lit up and he invited us to step around the bar to the olive oil area and removed a cloth from the top of a bowl of olive oil and spoons.  We took a spoon and dipped it into the olive oil and tasted it.  It has a little floral taste but no rancidity.  Our guide described how he is the person at the vineyard who drives the olives to the press and must wait to make sure that the press gives back only Tedo’s olive oil and no one else’s.  He was very proud of Tedo’s olive oil and it tasted great to us.  It was bottled in 750 ml. bottles like wine and we bought 2 bottles for 10 euros.

            Here is a blog by the wife of the couple who own Quinto de Tedo with a recipe for a chocolate cake that is almost identical to the one I make that she recommends eating with a ruby port. 

A perfect Easter pairing: our Ruby Port and the best ever chocolate cake

March 31, 2014

April Fool’s Day!
Easter is a time for celebration with family and friends, and I can proudly share with you my “irresistible chocolate cake”, a melt-in-your-mouth, dense and simply delicious bittersweet chocolate cake that pairs beautifully with our Ruby Port. The recipe is from Maison Lameloise, Burgundy’s 3-star Michelin restaurant in Chagny, where we have proudly held a tasting dinner for Quinta do Tedo.
Why a Ruby and not another Port? This fresh and fruity port, a blend of 3 harvests and aged for 3.5 to 4 years in wood (a short time compared to other port types), is less rich in tannins and thus pairs perfectly with an intensely-flavored and dense chocolate cake. As husband Vincent says, imagine the Ruby as  ”fortified” red fruit – slightly chilled, fresh and full in the mouth and the cake as a delicious bittersweet truffle.
Serve with fresh red berries – raspberries, strawberries, currants – tossed in a light orange-peel infused syrup and a dollop of whipped cream.  Oh la la!
Melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Cake
For 8 px
500 g bittersweet chocolate, cut in small pieces
500 g butter
400 g sugar
8 eggs
50 g flour

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler until almost melted; remove from double boiler and let cool, it will finish melting.  Mix sugar and flour, add to chocolate/butter mixture.  Beat the eggs and add to the above mixture. Transfer to a buttered pan. Cook at 170 C/350F for 1 1/2 hours. Let cool and serve with red fruit berries, ideally a mix of strawberries, raspberries, currants – in a orange peel-infused syrup, with whipped cream or creme anglaise.

Cheers~ Kay

            Then we drove back down the Douro to Régua and stopped at the Douro Inn for lunch.  The restaurant is elegant and Michelin recommended, so the food was first rate.  We started with a potato and leek and asparagus potage, then we were served a glass of wine and our choice of red or white wine.  Suzette and I switched on everything.  She ordered the pasta with veal ragout and I ordered grilled Dorado with smashed baked baby potatoes. My dish was better than Suzette’s.  I have not had a bad grilled fish in Portugal.   We enjoyed getting to know the other tour members and I gave out several cards for my blog.   

            After the entrees we were offered dessert of either fresh melon or orange cake with chocolate sauce.  Four of us selected each one.  Again Suzette and I split our desserts. The melon was fantastic, but the orange cake was also very good flavored with orange citrine and lemon and made with finely chopped almonds and almond milk.  The chocolate sauce was creamy and very light, but also very chocolaty.  After lunch Suzanna drove us up and up out of the Douro Valley.  Every turn was another more dramatic view until we could no longer see the river and were up near the top of the hillside, an ascent of several thousand feet.

  After leaving the Douro Valley we drove back toward Oporto to Aveleda Winery.  Aveleda is one of the largest Vinho verde producers, bottling approximately 15,000,000 bottles each year.  It is state of the art and yet it has a 300 year old history and a beautiful setting with an old house and the most beautiful gardens we have seen on the trip. The wine is called vinho verde because it is bottled before it it fully fermented and ferments a bit in the bottle which gives it a fresh fruit flavor and some bubbles.  It is a light drinking wine , but on the veranda overlooking the vineyards on the warm afternoon that we had today it was lovely.  Not one we chose to buy, but very refreshing.  We then headed back to Oporto     

Lemargo

View from Tedo toward Neiport

crushing bins at Tedo

View from Tedo toward Neiport

Douro Valley

grilled dorado

         When we arrived at the apartment Willy was waiting for us and we walked down to the river to see the sunset,  after sunset we looked for Chez Lapin and found it by way of the back alley that led to it rather from the river front.  This led  me to a strategic error.  Since I did not see the tables on the river front I agreed to be seated at a table next to the kitchen which was busier and hotter and lacked the lovely view of the river and the port warehouses across the river.  Of course I loved the hustle in the kitchen and watching the crew push to food out to the tables, but Suzette did not like it.  Also because we had all eaten a big lunch, we could not fully appreciate the dinner and took a lot of it home.  Willy ordered the tourist dinner for 19.00 Euros, which included a cream of vegetable soup, a plate with a large grilled salmon steak, a baked potato, salad, a half bottle of wine and a dessert that was mango mousse. Suzette shared with me and I ordered a fish soup that was not very good, a wonderful mussel soup and grilled octopus with baked potatoes and an onion and bell pepper sauce that was delicious.  Willy's wine was a vinho verde and I ordered a white Douro named platero that was great.

After dinner we walked east along the Douro until we came to the funicular and for 2 euros each we rode it up the hill to a point above the railroad station and within about four blocks of the railroad station.  We walked through the railroad station and looked at the amazing painted tiles on our way home.  The apartment is about two blocks from the railroad station. 

Another big day.

Bon Appetit

thi