5 Regions Tour - Travelogue

[Roy Hersh]

It all started today, after staying up all night in order to adjust my body to the time changes coming. Dorene drove me to the airport arriving at 4 a.m. and it was 4:30 by the time I checked my luggage, made my way through security and walked the 1/3 mile to the gate. Fortunately an exit row seat had been arranged and with a strong tailwind, we arrived 30 mins. early and now I am at Newark Airport waiting for my flight to Lisbon, with a 6+ hour layover. Brutal, and the only thing that takes longer than the wait for my next flight, is the time it takes for any web page to load here, due to the S L O W internet connection here in the United Airlines club. It could be worse.

And so it begins.

[Roy Hersh]

Not much to report today.

My flight from Newark to Lisbon was uneventful, meaning: my luggage met me at the airport.

Unfortunately, I sat next to a morbidly obese German man who spilled over the arm rest into my seat. I'd have moved, but there was not one seat open on the entire plane. As unpleasant as that was, his incessant "hacking up a lung" for the majority of the flight disturbed those around us for several rows in all directions and literally none of us could sleep AT ALL.

Honestly, I think I'd rather have lost my luggage than sit next to this man and now I have to pray I don't catch whatever he was afflicted with. The images in my mind were straight out of the TV series, DEXTER. Fortunately, they still only provide plastic knives with dinner.

The hotel was full last night so it was going to take a few hours for me to be able to obtain entry to my room when I arrived by 09h30. So I took my camera and walked for a couple of hours in a balmy 60 degrees, cloudy and a touch of light rain. I felt quite at home. Afterwards, a shower and then I spent the day working on the newsletter. Tonight I am having dinner with one of the gals from the tour who also got here early and we'll be meeting with a wine producer, Manz Wines. I've already tasted through their entire lineup up between my last visit to Lisboa and now. So it will be nice to actually meet the principals.

Tonight is also the big annual festival, Lisboa's equivalent of Sao Joao that takes place in Porto. Party time!

[Andy Velebil]

The luggage made it

Sucks on the flight, nothing worse than a horrible seat mate.

[Roy Hersh]

Friday - Manz wines meeting near Cascais. This is the company that saved the Jampal grape from extinction in Portugal. Afterwards we went to the St. Anthony's festival which rocked the entire Lisboa region. A combination of parade down Avenida da Liberdade, everyone grilling sardines in the street, selling Sagres everywhere, kids begin carried or dragged along by their parents, street art in narrow alleyways that went up or down long paths of stairs, live music and dancing on just about every other block and large throngs of partiers.

Saturday I slept in after going to bed around 4 a.m. Garrafeira Nacional was closed due to the holiday. But they have two other Lisboa-based shops and the closer one was open. It was crowded and we walked in and just started to look at the treasure trove of products. A family from the UK was looking at Ports and one of the individuals commented on the pricing, but also was looking for some special Vintage Ports to lay down for the future. While a saleswoman there was helping him, she was steering him into things he clearly was not looking to buy and at prices he mentioned were above his threshold. I introduced myself with my FTLOP hat on and he was intrigued to hear another person speaking English. I told him that I had no vested interest but would be happy to help and while the 1985 Fonseca at 125 Euros was too steep for his liking the 1983 Ramos Pinto appealed to him, for immediate consumption at 49.5 Euros. I also showed him a reasonably priced Smith Woodhouse from 2000 for laying down. He bought both and was thrilled.

We save the display case with the older wines that were available from a dispenser and after getting to know one of the sales people, the Colares (white) that I was dying to try, he confided it was not the freshest bottle at that point and talked me down. They also had a 1944 RCV Colheita on tap but the price was too high. The salesman saw that I was photographing lots of the old bottles in a glass enclosed display case and he came over, unlocked it and allowed me to take pictures for the next nearly half hour. What a pleasure to see these great old Vintage and Colheita Ports. There was another display case with legendary Madeiras and after talking Madeira for a bit he opened that up too and allowed me to photograph those bottles too. Quite the operation, and all of our notions about their stock and prices were spot on. I was disappointed the main shop was not open, which dated back to 1927, and although I had not been in there since 1994, I remembered fondly their incredible collection of scarcities in their lower level, "museum" ... items that were actually for sale too, from the 19th century.

On Sunday, we headed up to the Bairrada region. It was a couple of hour drive North of Lisbon but we had a great vehicle and driver and made excellent time. It was mostly flat with some beautiful vineyards and about 25 km from the Atlantic and pretty far north, about an hour south of Porto. just slightly to the interior.

Our first visit was to Colinas Sao Lourenceo, a well-known company that produces wine in several regions. The winemaker joined us for a full half day and toured us through the beautiful winery and showed us, proudly, the all gravity-fed fermenting tanks that were very similar to Quinta do Portal in the Douro. She told me she was surprised I picked that up, as the consulting designer of their new facility was the same man who had designed Portal. The similarities were striking. After seeing the entire place and it its largesse, we had our first of two extensive tastings. Bairrada is well known for many things, like Leitao or suckling pig, nice cheeses, and Sparkling wine along with several specific grape types.

Our tasting included several levels of the bubbly that they produced, and we learned of their picking the grapes slightly before their phenolic ripeness and pressed with skins on, to gain maximum acidity. Some were disgorged for our visit which was pretty cool. I was surprised to learn that maceration took place AFTER fermentation. Very interesting. They had versions of Touriga Nacional that are so very different than what Douro achieves with the same grape. All about the terroir, but mostly the micro-climate of the Bairrada in that case. Also, blends with Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Petit Verdot and we even tasted examples of Pinot Noir and lots of Baga and Bikal of course. Their total production was around 400,000 bottles. 200,000 from Bairrada, 100,000 bottles from both Vinho Verde and Dao too.

After our tasting we headed to Coimbra a 20 minute drive from there. I had always dreamed of seeing this part of Portugal and 21 years after my first visit it became a reality. The reason was that I knew they had the 2nd oldest University in the world in this mid-sized city, I believe it is the 3rd largest in Portugal proper. The University is over 725 years of age and is really impressive but as it was Sunday, the area surrounding it was very quiet. We did walk around and take plenty of photos though.

We settled in to a very special restaurant for lunch and I saw an EXTENSIVE lineup of wines that were going to accompany the several courses that had been planned for us by our new winemaker friend who had joined us. The food was absolutely remarkable and the wine pairing really worked well. Out of the many wines we had there were three that really captivated my attention. One was a Loureiro-grape white from Vinho Verde which exhibited all the great qualities and especially the aromatics and texture that I truly love about this particular grape. An Espumante Brut Reserva rivaled the best bubbly I've ever had in Portugal (Vertice Gouveio) and might have even bested that beauty. A perfect Epernay knock-off this gorgeous Bairrada fruited wine included the typical mix of all great French Champagnes: Chardonnay, Petite Meunier and Pinot Noir. In fact, we tasted their Pinot Noir and I was not all that excited due to its over extraction, but back to the 3rd wine that had me singing its praises: The 2008 Principal Grande Reserve, Bairrada DOC was impeccable. A fine blend of Touriga Nacional, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The precision of the aromatics and bottle age really set this off with our last course, (before dessert) and the overall symmetry, yet its ability to age another 15-20 years was an excellent showing of how great some of the reds from this region can get.

I must run for our first appointment today, but I will write again soon and finish the day into night of the first official day of our tour.

[Al B.]

Great write up - it felt like I was there with yu at Garrafeira Nacional. I can't wait to see the photos you took!

[Roger L.]

I was in GN that day - obviously not at the same time :-(

[Andy Velebil]

Nice recap, thanks and keep 'em coming.

[Marco D.]

Funny... I was in your same shoes last year. I was in Lisbon for the St Anthony feast and tried to visit the main GN... closed, as were many of the other places I wanted to visit. The tram #28 was also shut down because of the weddings at the main Cathedral. Fortunately I was there a week and was still able to visit the main GN shop.

Looking forward to more posts!

[Roy Hersh]

Continuing our journey in the Bairrada region, after departing Coimbra and its extraordinary vantage point, we found our way through small villages to the beautiful outskirts where we found our next winery visitation.

Quinta do Encontro is a part of a powerful group known as Dao Sul. The two owners of the group come from the Dao region and Porto, and encompass a bunch of wineries in six Portuguese wine regions, and they've been under this umbrella for the past quarter century.

Encontro is a stunning facility built to look like a wine barrel and set high atop a prominent hill top. Visually impressive with several tiers of wines to match, the 360 degree walk around views of vineyards, seen from their deck is unforgettable. Bical and Baga are Bairrada's star grapes in the Bairrada and Encontro focuses on these two while also including other more mainstream cultivars such as Touriga Nacional, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon etc. After a brief tour we had the great pleasure to taste through a selection of their lineup. Our visit here lasted until nearly 7:30 p.m. and we enjoyed a nice cross section of their portfolio.

As we still had to check into our "hotel" we bid farewell and drove a short distance to our 19th century roadhouse that was originally one family's home, with guest rooms inside and a bunch of individual apartments splayed across the vast grounds. This really won our guests over, with its sheer size and quaint feel in the middle of a tiny little hamlet. We settled in and rested for a bit before heading out for a late dinner. The Bairrada region is best known for one staple food item, Leitao, known in English as suckling pig. We were told about this one particular denizen of piggy dining a little more than a ten minute drive. We were all quite hungry and although the spartan ambience was a bit surprising, the quality of our dinner easily made up for the simplicity of the visuals. Our waiter suggested a top notch bubbly to pair with our perfectly roasted dinner and his offering really hit the spot, perfectly pairing with porky pig and its crackling skin. My mouth is watering just writing about this delectable combo. We headed back for a well deserved nights rest and some of us stayed up and plugged away using the internet.

The next day we had two and a half fine visits. The first of which was with the legendary Luis Pato. I had judged with Luis several years ago at an all Portuguese wine competition and was one of a small group of international wine judges that participated with winemakers pan-Portugal. He remembered me as I had worked at the next table and had a lengthy conversation with him during one of our breaks. Luis is a brilliant visionary and welcomed the group with open arms and presented a tour that was worth the entire visit to Bairrada. He spent many hours with us and showed us every nook and cranny of his operation and provided great insight into the unique equipment and the vast depths of the cellar as well.

Pato then presented a masterclass, tastiing through one of the widest arrays of Espumante and table wines I've ever encountered in a single visit in any wine region in the world. He opened bottle after bottle of extraordinary old and young wines and provided the answers to our questions about the vastly different soil types from limestone infused chalky red clay to very sandy soils that are located closer to the ocean. Bairrada has some extraordinarily diverse terroirs and Atlantic Ocean microclimates, even if it is nowhere as remarkable as say, the Douro region from a pure topographic and visual standpoint.

We learned the history of his family, from grape growers to winemakers and even about his daughter Filipa, who is a rock star of a winemaker in the region too, although both Pato's are well known and respected throughout Portugal. Luis also shared insight into the regions top grapes and loads of personal philosophies on life and winemaking. A great reconteur as well as a brilliant winemaker, this gregarous and insightful man embraced our diverse group and shared his 35 years of experience at his winery with us and made us all feel like welcome members of his family.

I am sorry to end here, because we are moving today to the Tejo region, formally Ribatejo ... but I will be back to share the other 1.5 visits that day and our other fine visits.

[Andy Velebil]

Awesome! I've generally really liked most Pato wines I've had, sounded like one incredible visit. And sucking pig = Heaven on a plate

[Roger L.]

Did you have the opportunity to taste Filipa Pato's "Espirito De Baga" - Port in all but name - made entirely from Baga wine fortified with Baga brandy?

[Roy Hersh]

Visit to Luis Pato ... continued:

With 60 hectares of vineyards, mostly estate grown, (the balance of which is all within a 12 km distance) the wines of Luis Pato offer huge diversity of grape and soil types. Also three of Luis's vineyards are planted with ungrafted vines. Sr. Pato prides himself on the use of the Baga grape in both Espumante and still wines. A grape that originated with Cistercian monks, Baga is chameleon-like in its ability to emulate the flavor bandwidth of a Syrah, Pinot Noir or Nebbiolo grape.

The ancestry of the Pato's family in wine, goes back to the 18th century, while Luis' grandfather and subsequently his own father passed along the winemaking gene Luis in turn has both of his daughters involved too. His daughter Maria Joao accompanied us throughout our visit and tasting and will likely be the heir apparent.

Luis Pato never shies away from controversy and is happy to share his strong and well-developed philosophies, "I believe that Bairrada always is great for white and sparkling wines." Yet until about 15 years ago, 95% of all reds in Bairrada were made from the Baga grape in this unique wine region that is likely best known for its wide array of Espumante. Luis is firmly in the camp of "precision harvesting" believing that two distinct pickings of the grapes during harvest allows him to capture the vines at the peak of their phenolic ripeneness. He also was the first in Bairrada to utilize green harvesting, but instead of dropping the fruit, Luis uses some of the under-ripe grapes in his sparkling wines, providing greater acidity. That being said, he also feels that leaving 9 bunches per vine for the second round of picking offers greater concentration of flavors and aromatics as well. Another Pato-ism is that while in the past there were two great vintages out of each decade, in more recent times, now there are eight great vintages per decade due to technological and winemaking innovations and controls that are in place today.

There is a lot more complexity to the mind and man and it showed greatly in his winemaking acumen. There were so many varieties used and we got a feel for the entire bunch, (no pun intended) through his wines during our comprehensive tasting. I have had many different versions of Sercial in the past, but never Sercialinho which is a cross between Sercial from Madeira and Alvarinho grapes. Additionally we were shown cask samples and finished bottle products, and Luis took us to school doing a comparative tasting of the same wine from different soil types, (clay vs. sandy) and also grafted vs. ungrafted root stock. Wrapping our brains around those concepts and translating it into understanding by tasting the difference was incredible.

I could go on and on about the depths of this visit but it is time to move on. To another Pato. His other daughter, the famous one ... Filipa Pato, joined us and we headed out to lunch with her. She drove us by where her two young children went to pre-school and showed us her residence and then both the old and brand new winery she was having renovated. A charming and confident young woman, Filipa is known around Portugal for her extraordinary energy and exquisite winemaking ability.

The current winemaking facility used is from 1880, and she is proud of that place where she started her own legacy after "leaving the nest" and branching out on her own. "I am not a competitor of my father, we share many ideas and philosophies, but our styles are our own." Her first vintage was in 2001 and she never looked back. Success quickly followed, as well as media attention in Portugal and overseas. Her new winery was purchased in 2011 and it has been in renovations and is just about completed. Filipa now owns 9 hectares of vineyards and also purchases fruit each year from trusted growers.

We had a casual lunch with Filipa at a local restaurant and she brought an armful of bottles with her for our group to try. I was really impressed and must confess I had only tried a few bottles of hers in the past decade. The first wine we tasted was a fine Bikal Calcario branco that based on her use of various oak treatments and aging, provide great complexity in a slightly oxidative style that I loved. But it was her 100% Baga that knocked my socks off. An incredible red that came from 80 year old vines and delivered phenomenal depth and a peppery and red fruited, highly structured wine that was very Nebbiolo-like. It paired beautifully with our lunch. A common thread in the rest of her reds was a briar patch component which along with well-delineated chalky tannins, made for a great tasting. Filipa invited us back, next time to visit her fully renovated winery and to taste more of her beautiful wines.

Our last appointment that day, took place at Campolargo. A family owned and operated business, it was set in a very large and clearly well-funded winery. The Campolargo's own 170 hectares of which 110 were estate grown with 60 ha in nearby Valdazar where their second property had been established. Yet this seemingly massive venture was not as old as I thought, with their first vintage produced in 2000.

We saw the entire property that afternoon and everything from their fermenters to the labs to their red wine storage containing 450 pipas in the adega. Their wines come from a combined 27 unique grape varieties.

The family business began with their grandfather, 35 years ago, as he was the first to grow grapes and actually sold them to others for many years. The company is now under the careful winemaking skills of Carlos Campolargo and his assistant Raquel. Their first commercially released vintage was actually 2004, which in Bairrada, was a difficult year for table wines (unlike the Douro).

We very much enjoyed an indepth tasting with Joana Campolargo and the assistant winemaker Raquel. We tried virtually every white, Espumante and red wine in their extensive lineup. Pinot Noir is often used in the sparkling wines across the region but in this case also in a stand alone wine. It was fascinating in its complextiy with a very minor seasoning of Brett that actually was prominent early on but within a couple of hours was nearly impossible to detect.

After our tasting, Joana loaded up the wines we had sampled and had us take them with us to enjoy with dinner that was prepared in their home by her mother and a chef helper. The main course of Coq au Vin, Portuguese style, was a nice twist and paired beautifully. From the petiscoes (aps) to the soup and through dessert, each course was exceptional and the wines really highlighted the flavors in our food and vice versa. We will certainly be back next year to visit the wonderfully warm Campolargo family!

This ended our day into night of fine Bairrada wines, day 2. Tomorrow we will head to Tejo region to explore a company that I met last year.

[Moses Botbol]

Luis Pato wines are quite popular in my area. Great line up and really well priced IMO; we buy them often. Would be a producer I would like to visit if I were in that region.

[Roy Hersh]

The Tejo wine region was renamed a few years back, (formerly known as Ribatejo) inspired by the Tejo River that runs through it. That is the Portuguese name for the waterway that originates in the middle of Spain and flows down through Portugal and out to the Atlantic Ocean by Lisboa, where English speaking people know it as the Tagus River.

The Tejo is best known for its white grapes: Fernao Pires and Arinto, as well as its big bold and most prominent red grapes: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Alicante Bouschet, Cabernet Sauvignon and Castelao (aka Periquita, one of the famed grapes of Setubal). According to a phone call made to the regional commission in Tejo, there are currently nearly 80 commercial wineries in the area.

When planning this trip we realized that the Tejo region was initially going to be just a half day on this particular part of the tour and that we would need a fine winery that would represent the spectrum of what the Tejo could provide. Later on the trip we will circle back and spend time at Quinta da Lapa, but for now we only had time for one property. We chose Casal da Coelheira, which translates to "House of Rabbit". It is a family owned operation that began its modern day version in 1986 and produced its first vintage the following year; though historically speaking the winery has been active during the majority of the past two centuries.

We met with Nuno Rodrigues who has been making wine at Casal da Coelheira since 1987 and as it is a small family run business, he has also developed the export market which maintains about 50% of their business as Portuguese citizens enjoy the other half of the fruit of Nuno's labor. The USA currently has representation in Chicago, but soon will also have an east coast importer in Massachusetts, California and NY-metro area. Additionally their wines are found in Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China and Taiwan and outside of Asia in a half dozen EU countries as well as Russia, Brazil, Angola and two provinces in Canada. Total production is approximately a quarter of a million bottles.

We had a really nice but brief tour of the entire winery, as after awhile the stainless steel and barrel rooms become nearly superfluous to our visits and we like to show our guests something new at each property. The soil in the vineyards is sandy, preventing such little demons as Phylloxera from spreading, but it not great for grape growing but seemingly is still able to do a good job in the case of Casal da Coelheira. The vines in their vineyard were mostly grafted to American rootstock, but some of the younger vines that replace those that die off, are ungrafted.

We took part in an extensive tasting that took a couple of hours because this winery has a fairly broad spectrum of wines. Their basic white was quite good and was a blend of Fernao Pires (also known as Maria Gomes in Bairrada) Arinto and Verdelho. The QPR on this wine is outstanding, but in terms of complexity and overall drinking pleasure I certainly preferred the excellent Reserva version which was revelatory, heavily influenced by it's 80% Chardonnay and 20% Arinto and new French oak aging. The Rose was pleasant and subtle, but not one of the greatest examples we've encountered so far. the reds offered a ton of value for money. My favorites were the 2012 Reserva which was a fine mix of equal parts Touriga Nacional and Franca with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Other stand outs were the beautiful entry level red a well-aged 2011 from Argonez, Castelao, Syrah. This was enjoyed at a restaurant we dined in at lunch time. Not knowing the price up front, I must say that the approachability factor, the ease in which this paired with several courses and the absolute delicious harmony in this particular bottling, was nothing short of amazing. It will likely be coming to the USA later this year and I will be buying several cases for my own cellar! The other red that really caught my attention was the 2012 Mythos (translates to Mythical) which was the top of their red range and still quite affordable, the first vintage of which was 2003. It is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Cabernet and also Touriga Franca. This was a seriously complex red, and unfortunately there are only 5,000 bottles produced. This has won critical praise and I for one, can certainly understand why. I bought a bottle to take back home as this was one of the best reds I've tasted on our tour so far.

We had a few hours to drive through the beautiful wilds of the cork forests and stopped in a huge cork tree processing plant which provided us with some wonderful insights and photos. We continued on through the northern Alentejo, seeing wild bulls, sheep and several other species of animals along both sides of the narrow, hilly and meandering road before finally settling in to our hotel, located next to a remarkably old castle and monastery in Estremoz.

Tomorrow we will begin our exploration of this vast wine region.

[Andy Velebil]

Nice recap. Really enjoying the read. Please keep 'em coming.

[Eric Ifune]

Yes, I'm really enjoying this as well!

[Roy Hersh]

Will do, for awhile it seemed like nobody cared and it was taking a lot of time that was alloted for sleep. So, I will begin again tomorrow, PT time. We finished the tour with a bang this evening, going to a great restaurant and a few of us went to explore the beauty of Caiparinha and then out to a late night club for dancing afterwards. A great ending to our finest tour ever.

It may not have provided the great old Ports and Madeiras that we've become well known for, but the quality of producers and the treatement we received was an unparalleled experience. The bond created by the guests on this tour was above and beyond anything we've ever achieved. While Mario was skeptical about doing this, we learned a few tricks about what will improve this even further. I expect that in 2016, this tour will become extraordinarily popular, as we do plan to take it to the next stratosphere which is saying a lot.

[Bradley Bogdan]

Loving reading along! My mouth has been watering with each one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkz. U

[Paul Fountain]

Yep, I'm enjoying reading along as well. I do keep an eye out for wine from regions other than the Douro, and of the Portuguese table wine I own, I probably have a bit from a few different regions, so it is great to read about some of these.

[Al B.]

Although I am a bit erratic with the timing of my ability to read the thread, I always really enjoy the travelogue reports from the Tours. This one is particularly interesting as everything is so new to me.