Cool and refreshing, VINHO VERDE is hot - [Miami Herald]
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:46 am
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The Miami Herald
Posted on Thu, Jun. 16, 2005
WINE
Cool and refreshing, vinho verde is hot
BY FRED TASKER
ftasker@herald.com
Just the facts, ma'am, about vinho verde.
It's pronounced VEEN-yoh VERD, not VEEN-yoh VAIR-day, because it's Portuguese, not Spanish.
It translates as ''green wine,'' not from its color, which is more like white grapefruit juice, but because it's fresh, comes from a particularly verdant area in northwest Portugal and is made to be consumed within a year of being made.
''It's always drunk very, very young,'' says Antonio Luis Cerdeira, spokesman for the Vinho Verde Commission.
It's light, crisp, low in alcohol and even a little spritzy, so it's the perfect wine for hot-weather and picnics, simple fish and chicken dishes and sandwiches.
And you can hardly spend more than $10 for a bottle for it if you try.
Got your attention? Read on.
Vinho verde is the ancient, traditional wine from Portugal, made nowhere else, of grapes with names like alvarinho, loureiro, trajadura and pederna, which even when fully ripe produce only about 11 percent alcohol instead of the usual 12 percent or more.
It's still going strong while so many other European countries tear out traditional varieties to plant American-style chardonnay, merlot and such. In part that's because the Portuguese like their own stuff so much they only export 20 percent of it.
''We're very traditional, and we feel no pressure to change,'' says Cerdeira.
In olden days, the Portuguese trained the vines to grow up trees, struggling to pick the grapes from ladders, to preserve the ground beneath for valuable food crops. Today the vines are trained low, on wire trellises, so they can be picked by machines for greater efficiency.
The vinho verde area north of Oporto is so pretty that boosters have set up a Vinho Verde Route, filled with vineyards, historical landmarks, hotels, restaurants and other attractions that is popular with tourists (see http:/rota.vinhoverde.pt).
Oh, the Portuguese do make a red vinho verde, of the vinhao grape. In fact, it's 40 percent of all the vinho verde made. But they export only about 1 percent of it, and even the portion that arrives in the U.S. is drunk almost entirely by New York City's Portuguese community.
They drink it with pork. Very fat pork. Cuts through it like a knife, they say.
''It's quite strange,'' Cerdeira says. ``It's the taste of the region.''
TASTING NOTES
Highly Recommended:
* 2004 Portal do Fidalgo Alvarinho by Provam, 13 percent alcohol: full-bodied and lush with orange, peach and lychee fruit, bone dry, very crisp: $13.
* 2004 Grinalda Vinho Verde Branco by Aveleda, 11 percent alcohol: light, spritzy and bone dry, with flavors of green apples, pears and limes; $9.
Recommended:
* 2004 Fmaga Vinho Verde Branco by Caves da Cerca, 9 percent alcohol: light, spritzy, even frothy, lightly sweet white grapefruit flavors; $7.
* 2004 Aveleda Trajadura Vinho Verde Branco by Aveleda, 11 percent alcohol: full body, mint and mineral aromas, crisp green apple flavors; $8.
* 2004 Afros Branco Loureiro by Afros, 11 percent alcohol: mint and asparagus aromas, minerally flavors, very dry, full-bodied; $9.
* 2004 Afros Tinto Vinhao Red Wine: vivid purple color, aromas and flavors of grapes, chocolate, tar, shoe polish; $10.
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