On purple pages recently we have looked in some detail at the most exciting table wines to emerge from Portugal's most famous wine region, the Douro. But we shouldn't ignore the immense changes that have been taking place in the country's more traditional table wine regions Dão and Bairrada just south of the Douro valley. For that reason I have recently added to purple pages an overview and tasting notes on some of the most important wines being made in these two neighbouring regions, but the best buy by far seems to me to be this charming new red from Quinta de Saes.
With the renowned Quinta da Pellada, Quinta de Saes is one of the two neighbouring properties in Dão owned by civil engineer Alvaro Castro, who now has a joint venture with Dirk Niepoort of which more below. Castro and his daughter Maria have been working hard on softening the style of their reds without sacrificing their essential Dão-ness and this 2001 seems to me to represent a breakthrough. Although it has the notable acidity that characterises the Atlantic-influenced wines of Portugal, this 2001 is super-fruity and quite easy to drink already, with none of the thoroughly forbidding tannins that used to be the distinguishing mark of red Dão. (In the old days Dão was one of the most fruitless wines in the world.)
Quinta de Saes is planted in the traditional Portuguese manner with different varieties – in this case 30 year-old Touriga Nacional, Tinta Pinheira, Jaen and Alfrocheiro – all mixed up in the vineyard (Quinta da Pellada is more logically planted). The harvest was interrupted by rain and the alcohol level is a highly palatable 12.5 per cent. This mixed bag of fruit was fermented at temperatures below 28 deg C to retain that fresh fruit quality and aged for two or three months in old oak barrels, both French and American oak.
At £6.95 from UK importers WineSearcher for stockists in other countries. This carefully-made blend of Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo) is the result of Sogrape's efforts to modernise its regional table wines – surely a sound post-Matéus strategy.
And the Niepoort connection? Alvaro Castro and Dirk Niepoort are planning 3000 bottles of Dado, a blend of Quinta da Pellada and Niepoort's Batuta from the Douro for sale mainly in Portugal where these two guys are so well known. Sounds intriguing.
