Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

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Mario Ferreira
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Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

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Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

By Joao Ferreira
Grape Expectations
March 06, 2008 6:00 AM

While Portuguese wine has failed to fulfill its full potential in the United States so far, there's an importer in New Bedford bent on accomplishing that goal.

Talk to Jack Couto, president of fast-growing Grape Moments, and he is all enthusiasm about the future of Portuguese wines in the United States. He will drop highly favorable reviews by respectable wine publications into your hands, tell you about the progress of Portuguese wines in the last decade, and describe his mission in life: Making Portuguese wine the next big thing in America.

That's a tall order.

"I would like it if there were five or six Grape Moments. I can't conquer the U.S. alone," Jack laments, reflecting on his 23-year experience in the business.

Here's partly why. Until recently, Portuguese wine importers have catered primarily to the ethnic Portuguese market. That's all fine, but if Portuguese wine is going to succeed in this country, importers have to move beyond the walls of the Fall Rivers and New Bedfords of America.

"There are many Portuguese wine importers, but not many are working at a national level," Jack says. "That's the biggest problem."

A good example of this problem was Portugal's modest display at the recent Boston Wine Expo, leading local wine blogger Marco Montez to write that the expansion of Portuguese wine in the United States "won't happen. Now and not anytime soon."

Jack prefers to be a bit more optimistic.

He points out that Grape Moments, with a sprawling 1,700-square-foot warehouse in New Bedford's South End and $1 million of inventory on hand, sells 80 percent of its wine outside the ethnic market, in 34 states. Their portfolio includes wines from Portugal's best regions, including the Douro and Alentejo, and the future looks bright.

Due to an increasing effort by Vini Portugal, a professional association that promotes Portuguese wine in the United States, major wine magazines and newspapers like the New York Times have recently published articles raving about Portugal's new wines. Portugal is not just about Port or rose any longer, the articles often say.

"This didn't happen in the old days," Jack says about the intense coverage.

Jack thinks, and so do I, that Portuguese wines have all the necessary ingredients to be as well-known in the United States as the wines of, say, neighboring Spain. The grape varieties are unique, the wines are full of character and "unexpected flavors," Jack says, and the quality continues to move upward.

The realization of this potential led Grape Moments to change its strategy after it was created about three years ago. The company initially had wines from Portugal, other European countries and South America in its portfolio, but quickly changed course to focus primarily on Portuguese wines. Now it's time to spread the word.

"Everything works around an image," Jack says. "I think Portugal is heading in the right direction."

Wine of the week

The Quinta dos Grilos Dao (about $8 in stores) is one of the Grape Moments wines I've come to enjoy with some frequency. This affordable red from the Dao region offers enough complexity, dark and red berry fruit and a good balance between acidity and tannins to satisfy. Like other Dao reds, it tends to be more savory than overly fruity.

Joao Ferreira is a Standard-Times staff writer. Contact him at jferreira@s-t.com
Moses Botbol
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Re: Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

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This sheds some light to some of my posts saying Dao's and Douro's are all over the market place in MA and RI; especially in the Portuguese areas.
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Roy Hersh
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Re: Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

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I found this to be a very enlightening article, to say the least. I hope Mr. Couto is very successful in realizing his dreams.
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
Brian C.
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Re: Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

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Forgive if this is grave-digging (responding to an old thread), but I searched this site for Grilos and this is the most recent one I came up with.

I have tried the 2006 Grilos, and my wife and I enjoyed it immensely. Another good Dao red that I tried was the Quinta dos Roques. My local wineshop sold out of it instantly when they featured it at a free tasting. I still preferred the Grilos.

I wish I only paid $8 for the Grilos, but not many places here in Chicago carry a real selection of Portugese table wines. My local wineshop does their homework, and it pays off for them. It goes for $13 here, but I still liked it just the same. If I get out east, I will definitely stock up on some at $8.

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Re: Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

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Brian,

No worries about bringing back old threads, its always good to revisit them with new info. Glad you liked those wines, and although the other regions of Portugal don't have the top quality consistancy that the Douro wines do, there are some remarkable QPR (quality to price ratio) wines from these other regions. IMO, one of the best regions in wine making for such good values.
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Moses Botbol
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Re: Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

Post by Moses Botbol »

I wasn't so big on Grilos, but it's certainly one of the most popular Dao's around. I like Quinta Cabriz or Dao Sul reserva... Hopefully I spelled them correct? There's so many Dao's available around me, I just look at the year and price and go from there. Virtually all of them are imported locally to me. For Daos, if it's got a few years on it, says Reserve and is under $14, I'll give it a try... :D

Portugal is offering great QPR in all regions. Some wine drinkers may not like some of them because the nose on some of the traditional Portuguese grapes may not appeal.

It's hard to beat Portuguese wines in the under $20.00 price range.
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Roy Hersh
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Re: Portuguese wines slowly make inroads in United States

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Quinta dos Roques is brought into the USA by a local Bellevue, WA importer. We have two other importers in the area that also specialize in Portuguese brands too. Mr. Couto is by no means the only one sharing the collective wisdom re: Portuguese table wines. I know of several others in NJ, Virginia and California that also do this.
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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