My wife and I were in V.n.d.G. on a day when just about all of the port houses were closed. Walked up the hill to Barros--closed (do they even do tastings up at the main facility?). Across to Taylor's--tasting room and restaurant both closed (but not the next day
). So back down to the bottom, and finding Cálem open, we decided to give it a try.Cálem is big, and definitely touristy. They appear to cater to tour groups (saw a bus there a few days later), and they have a large tasting room to accommodate a lot of people. The next tour wasn't in English, and my wife wasn't in the mood to translate from one of her many languages, so we decided to skip the tour. That turned out to be a great decision. Instead of joining a pack of half drunk people, we were escorted through the facility to the tasting room for our own personal sampling. One tour group was leaving as we sat down, and another would come and go. Meanwhile, Virginia brought us six of their offerings which we took time to enjoy. Oh, and we asked for a little more after that too :)
(Click on pictures for higher resolution versions. These are sized as per a moderator's request in another thread.)
The first two whites, a dry and a semi-dry would definitely make a good apéritif, or perhaps mix well with tonic. They were nice, but not my favorite whites of the trip. And they were not as nice as the Lágrima, which had a very good wood complexity. I liked the Velhotes Ruby Red, but my wife didn't like it as much (and it definitely couldn't compete with the Quinta do Noval a few days later). The Velhotes Tawny had a good complexity and aroma, but didn't make our purchase list. Then the 10 Year Tawny ... mmmmmm. I could just sniff that for hours, but it also begged to be consumed. The knock-your-socks off aroma (my notes, after drinking a bit that day) was followed by a lot of raisin along with some currant and plum flavors.
Our purchase as we left was a 1997 LBV that was on sale for 10€. We took that back to our apartment to sample and decided it was well worth it's price. A few days later we returned to buy another of those along with multiple bottles of the 10 year old tawny.
So I won't win any prizes with my tasting notes. I hope you still enjoyed the pictures.
-Eric
group what it would be like to walk in without an appointment and another two times with appointments and specific tastings being held. It is a very fine facility, renovated a couple of years ago and lots of money spent to make it very fashionable, including the large cask (Balseiros) that you can actually sit inside of, as it is a miniature movie theater. Cool place but the wines they let the tourists taste are pretty weak.
