Over 1000 kilometers from mainland Portugal, the island of Madeira enjoys summer temperatures around 22°C and winters around 16°C (and I’m American so none of those numbers mean anything to me). This is a hot climate for wine, and while a few weirdos are out there planting Vitis whatever-the-American-species-is*, most winemakers on the island are […]
Monthly archives for March, 2015
Hardy Wine, Unlikely Clime
Pico is an island in the Azores archipelago famed for its fortified wines and named for its volcano—at 7713 feet, the tallest in Portugal, and the tallest island mountain in the Atlantic (there are taller ones underwater). “Lajido” is the name of the solidified lava into which the vines on Pico are planted; it’s also the […]
A Needy Grape You Need to Try
Ramisco (pronounce the “R” like an “H”) is a picky varietal: it only likes sandy soils, it demands to be planted deep, and it requires lots of aging to open up. There are only 10 hectares of Ramisco remaining on this planet; there was more planted not long ago, but Colares, the Lisboa appellation that […]
A Tale of Two Verdes
Before this trip, I loathed Vinho Verde. I also didn’t know what it was, because I’d never really tried one. Most Vinho Verde on the New York City market (I won’t name names) is diluted, barely alcoholic lemon-lime seltzer, which might have seen a grape once and retails for under $10. But, if it’s not Gazela or […]
Vitis mysterious
Pressed against the plaza wall at Quinta Nova, an unremarkable row of tiny, gnarled vines clutches tightly, almost arthritically, to the hillside. The eye passes over them easily, favoring the grander views of the mighty river valley and its slopes, wrought into terraces over the course of lifetimes by unfathomable human effort. But these crippled […]
Eating Dirt on the Douro
We roared up the zigzag roads of the Douro just after sunrise, taking the hairpin turns at breakneck speed. I bounced around the truck bed, snapping photos with one foot planted on my suitcase—to steady myself, but also to protect my precious liquid cargo. At the start of this trip, my suitcase was packed with […]
‘Stache or Glasses
Last post, we discussed how different types of Port are aged, but we didn’t actually drink any. Today, we’re going to fix that: Niepoort, another family-owned Port house, makes a “Junior Ruby” and “Senior Tawny” which epitomize and should clear up the difference between their respective styles. We’ll begin with the Junior Ruby, which is […]