BLIND TASTING with the people of QUINTA DA PELLADA

Mar 5, 2019 | Travel

Once or twice a year, there’s a blind trial with the people from Quinta da Pellada, blind to them. For we take the wines, and the Eng Álvaro is responsible for the food. Sometimes (as this time) occurs in the house of the Engineer. Other times, we visit restaurants that are worth while in the Region.

I no longer remember the reason why this evidence came about (if there were any), but this was the 6th Edition. naturally, we try to take wines that are not obvious, or less known, or exceptionally good, or likely to nail down…

For starters, I told as soon I took two whites, a “Água-pé” (is a traditional alcoholic beverage from Portugal, with low alcohol content, resulting from the addition of water to grape bagasse and brandy), a red and a fortified. They were beyond me, the Eng. Álvaro de Castro, Maria Castro, Elisa Lobo and young winemaker Tiago, not long ago in the House.

The repast consisted of green asparagus as an entrée, a divinely tender grilled beef, and to finish an icy Camel’s drool, only in the reach of large cooks like Margarida.

So let’s go to the tasting wines:

  • 221 ADEGA MÃE 2015

Country: Portugal
Region: Lisbon/Melgaço
Producer: Adega Mãe
Type: White
Grape: Alvarinho
Year: 2015
Alcohol Content: 12.5% Vol.

  • 18 Points
We’ve already described it here on the Site. A very cool Alvarinho, little lush in terms of fruit/floral, unlike what happens in Monção/Melgaço. Very nice in the Mouth. A wine that is almost consensual and of great quality. We have already explained before, why the name of the wine, the fact that it is done with a lot 50/50% of Lisbon/Melgaço, etc., so we are not going to stretch it out now. The truth is that no one found out or thought that it was Alvarinho (it is as if the lot of Lisbon was overlooking the Melgaço), everyone liked the wine very much, and I see the previous classification High.

Price: 23-25 euros

  • PARCELA ÚNICA 2013

Country: Portugal
Region: Vinhos Verdes Region
Producer: Anselmo Mendes
Type: White Vinho Verde
Grape: Alvarinho
Year: 2013
Alcohol content: 13% Vol.

  • 17,5 Points
Now, and we follow with another Alvarinho (and the same winemaker)… there it is… to see the difference! … interestingly, at least this bottle (which was always in the basement, in my power), the wine was more evolved than would be expected. A much more characteristic flavour than the previous one, in the mouth more full bodied and unctuous, and then a not so pleasant ending due to the said oxidation. Anyway, it had a good general acceptance, and everyone agreed it was a good wine. Read a few words from the producer himself about this wine: “coming from a single parcel… that reveals the purest and most original has the caste Alvarinho. The profile of this wine is the Apology of Elegance. ”
When I uncovered the two bottles was the general surprise: no one had arrived there: that were 2 monocaste wines of Alvarinho… As soon as they knew that today they were just monocaste wines…
But we were all satisfied: the food was great, the company also, and the wines were to correspond…

Price: 28 euros

  • GOUVYAS TOURIGA FÊMEA 2015

Country: Portugal
Region: Douro
Producer: Bago de Touriga
Type: Red
Grape: Touriga Fêmea
Year: 2015
Alcohol content: 13% Vol.

  • 16,5 Points

And we followed that water-foot that I had promised. The temperature of the wine I think it was on point. Also the proof of this wine has already been published on the site, so I will not stretch much in your description. It was perhaps the least consensual wine. The engineer even liked the “joke” because he likes light wines… Elisa did not like it very much, because it reminded her of those “palhetos” wines that her relatives made… Tiago the youngest winemaker liked it. I liked it less than the two times before. But it was nice and a good experience…

Price: 14 euros

  • JÚLIO BASTOS ALICANTE BOUSCHET 2007

Country: Portugal
Region: Alentejo
Producer: Júlio Bastos
Type: Red
Grape: Alicante Bouschet
Year: 2007
Alcohol content: 14% Vol.

  • 18 Points
Well, the color and the flavour are very good to think about what’s going to happen in the mouth.
A intense wine, full-bodied, filled, tasty, with some velvet… and prolonged end. It is perfect to consume now, and it should no longer improve in bottle. You notice some rusticity in the aroma and flavour… But that, in my opinion, does nothing to your disadvantage. But the engineer Álvaro de Castro does not like this type of wines… I already knew that. He does not like these wines “too” intense and of that rustic component. Everyone else liked it. They understood the power of the wine well, and at the same time its velvet… It was naturally on purpose that I brought these two reds, so that we could then prove the 2 extremes… Most of the wines that we drink on a daily (and not only) are right in the middle… They all agreed with me, and they thought it was a curious experience…

Price: 78 euros

  • BARBEITO MALVASIA 30 ANOS VÓ VERA

Country: Portugal
Region: Madeira
Producer: Barbeito Wines
Type: Fortified-wood
Grape: Malvasia
Alcohol content: 20% Vol.

  • 19 points

As Eng. Álvaro says, I usually bring a good candy. And in fact, this was one of the best, if not the best ever. The flavour and the aroma is soon a brutality: it’s just freshness, sea, iodine, some sweetness… It would be hours to smell this wine. Then in the mouth is a elegance difficult to describe… sweet, but not too… tasty, with notes of spices, dried fruit, and always a lot of freshness, with an almost perfect final Acidity. We should all drink this wine… And more than once. But, there are only 612 Bottles!! An exception wine in honor of Ricardo Diogo Freitas ‘ grandmother’. And the price is not sweet, of course. It was, consensually the best wine of the tasting… If you have the opportunity to get it don’t hesitate!…

Price: 250 euros

By Paulo Fernando to Wine4People, Pinhanços 2018