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 […]
“I’m a crazy guy, ah?” Luis Pato asks Kat and me. He waits for us to nod, then continues: “I make a pink. There was an error. The bottles start to explode! I have to optimize my process!” There is a mad twinkle in his eyes, a blissful grin that suggests that nothing better could […]
“Is that a 1934 Port in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” If there were other Americans around, I would’ve cracked that joke at least ten times, but it was just Fernando Van Zeller and I, and I didn’t think the cliché was fit for nobility. Besides, the Barão de Vilar (one […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I should be on a plane home right now. SISAB ended yesterday with a final round of drinks and a glorious a cappella rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in the hotel lobby. But instead of returning to the frozen hell that is New York City, I decided to hop a train north to Porto, where […]
As the manager of a wine shop, nothing drives me crazier than the question, “Where are your sulfite-free wines?” First of all, sulfites, while more often than not added as a preservative, also and always—repeat, always—occur naturally in wine. Second, if you don’t get a sulfite headache from eating raisins, you won’t get it from drinking wine. […]
“Both of these seem kind of stiff,” I confessed to Rui Martins of Herdade da Comporta. We were standing by the winery’s tasting room window, which looks out over the surrounding salt marsh. In addition to a winery, Herdade da Comporta also happens to be a rice farm, and much of the marsh is planted […]
Quinta de Catralvos, the site of Malo Tojo, is only a 45-minute drive from Lisbon. Approaching the winery, we drive parallel to a vineyard planted with Castelão vines, still barren in early March. Giant urns line the winery courtyard, which overlooks a small grove of orange trees, bordered on all sides by more vineyards—these planted […]
