At the end of September, my wife and I flew to Portugal again (for the fourth time this year!) to delve even deeper into Portuguese wines, this time also exploring the Dão region. To reassure all those worried that I'm no longer a true Frenchman: don't worry, there's no danger. Nevertheless, we plan to redesign the Maître Philippe & Filles wine program, better curating it, so that we can present you with an even more special offering. This includes somewhat reducing the proportion of French wines, while taking great care to offer you only excellent, affordable, and special wines, primarily from direct imports, that you won't find anywhere else in Germany. At the same time, we will expand the Portuguese wine program. I won't go so far as to say that Portugal is the new Tuscany, but the country is currently managing, like no other, to establish a connection between the past and tradition on the one hand, and the future with its modern wines on the other. You as our customers can only benefit from this, especially since the quality and price-performance ratio are truly convincing.
This time our tour takes us back to the Douro Valley, which we already visited in the summer, and then to the Dão region, a little further south inland.
Our first appointment is with Pedro Maria Barbosa in Vila Nova Foz de Cõa in the Douro Alto. Pedro is responsible for all the details of viticulture at Quinta do Vale Meão and owns a few vineyards in Amarante, from which he produces his own wine. He receives support from the Quinta do Vale Meão's oenologist.
We're particularly excited about Pedro's fantastic Vihno Verde called "Clip," made from the native Loureiro (bay) grape variety, which may replace our current Vinho Verde. It's light, beautifully fruity, and has only 11% alcohol.
We tried it on the terrace of the Douro Museum in Foz Cõa, from which we had a magnificent view of the Douro and Cõa rivers. We ate typical Portuguese petiscos and felt like God in Portugal ;)
In the evening, we drove to Rita Marques Ferreira, whose wines (Conceito, Contraste, Bastardo, and the ports) we already have in our program and who is part of the "Young Portuguese Winemakers" group. Rita's vineyards are located in Cedovim at an altitude of between 500 and 700 meters. The red grapes grow on slate, the white on granite.
When we arrived at her place around 7 p.m., she and her team were busy cleaning the cellars, accompanied by loud heavy metal music and a glass of gin in hand. This clearly shows that a new generation of winemakers is now in charge.
They are driven by passion. Passion for their profession and the vision of combining the tradition of Portuguese viticulture with the knowledge and techniques acquired abroad to produce exceptional wines and restore Portugal to the forefront of European wine-producing countries. Accordingly, the working hours for Rita, her oenologists, and friends are quite unusual: during fermentation (natural and spontaneous), they spend the night in the cellars to ensure that temperatures don't get too high.
After a spontaneous wine tasting of the new wines (Brut, Cuvée, and Port), we were invited to dinner with the whole family. It was a great pleasure to meet Rita's husband, Luís, their two children, Rita's mother (with whom it all began), her grandfather, the oenologists and friends, and not to forget the housekeeper, Fatima (cook, housekeeper, and nanny all in one). After dinner, we returned to our monastery hotel—while Rita and her crew spent the night in the cellar.
After a day of rest, we continue our route to Dão, which can also be called the Burgundy of Portugal. The wine-growing region lies on a high plateau (400 to 600 meters) with predominantly granitic rock and sandy soils, surrounded and protected by three mountain ridges.
Here, we particularly want to meet Antonio Madeira, a Franco-Portuguese from Paris whose family comes from Gouveia, a small town in the Centro region. We're also eager to meet Alvaro Castro from Quinta da Saes. We'll kill two birds with one stone by meeting them together, which is no problem, as they know each other well and also produce wines together. Antonio produces all his wines with the help of Alvaro's oenologist, Luís Miguel, whom we met at the Lisbon wine fair. He produces his white wines at Alvaro's, as his facility has the necessary equipment for these delicate wines. He makes his red wines in his own cellar.
Antonio only returned from Lisbon the evening before our appointment. We found him at work: he was busy stamping his red wine cuvées and checking the temperatures. He interrupted his work for us and drove out to the vineyards with us. Antonio is what you would call a garage winemaker. That means he doesn't own any vineyards of his own, but rents them from his friends, relatives, and neighbors. The whole family does the work together: father, mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws… everyone pitches in. The special thing about Antonio's wines is that he currently works almost exclusively with very old vines that only exist in this region. We were introduced to the whole team. Then a journalist who was writing a book on old vines joined us, and Antonio took us to see some of his vines that were over a hundred years old.
Back in his wine cellar, we sample his freshly prepared wines as well as those that are more mature. Afterwards, we are invited to lunch. About 11 to 12 people squeeze into the small kitchen, enjoying bacalhau with zucchini from the garden, the famous Portuguese cheese from the Serra da Estrela, and, of course, Antonio's wine, of which the whole family is so proud.
Our last stop takes us to Luís Pato, the King of Baga, whose family has been producing wine since the 18th century. We are particularly interested in his fantastic sparkling wines in the Crémant style, made from the famous Baga grape, Touriga Nacional, and Maria Gomes. For this, we travel to the Bairrada region, west of the Dão region, between Coimbra and Aveiro. We meet Luís and his youngest daughter Maria, who had already visited us in Berlin, and are invited to a comprehensive tasting of their wines, which will be attended by several Japanese and Canadian sommeliers. Our conclusion: Pato is not called the King of Baga for nothing! We are particularly impressed by his "Espumantes," sparkling wines characterized by a particularly delicate creaminess. We immediately ordered the sparkling Maria Gomes from 2014 and the sparkling Baga Rosé from 2012 and are already looking forward to welcoming them to our range very soon.
So you can see: there is still a lot to discover here... And we would like to share it with you!
That's why you can sample the finest wines from our explorations at a Festa Portuguesa, which will take place here on October 16th and 17th . For this occasion, we'll be joined by three winemakers: Luis Louro from the Alentejo, whose Alento wines you already know and love; Rita Marques Ferreira, the passionately driven heavy metal winemaker from the Conceito ("Concept") winery; and Antonio Madeira. They'll be pouring their wines (Rita and Luis on both days, Antonio on Saturday) and talking about the " Revolution on the Douro ," the curse and blessing of indigenous grape varieties, and why winemakers should travel more. You can also sample over 10 wines by the glass and ask our guests in private conversation (all three speak English) what you've always wanted to know about Portuguese wine...
