Casa Santos Lima Quinta de Bons-Ventos 2008

Portuguese wine has a reputation as being good value, and I don't think I try enough of it. This is £5.99 (regular price) at Oddbins.

I need to keep things in context here. £5.99 to me is a good price for an everyday wine, if a little high (I can frequently find stuff I really enjoy for under £5, with all the special offers). It may not be cheap for other people, and for yet others it may be regarded as plonk territory. Let's just say it's certainly affordable to most wine drinkers.

At first I found it a bit disappointing, but only because it's of that soft, easy drinking style that I don't usually go for. The little blurb on the shelf at Oddbins said it would go well with pizza, and we were having spaghetti bolognese for dinner, so it seemed like a good choice. Indeed, it went fairly well with the food - my only gripe was the oak character in the wine, which was noticeable. It has some spice and perfume notes as well, it reminds me of a southern French red.

Going back to the price, it seems good value, maybe a pound or so less though?

Incidentally, this wine is classified as VR Lisboa under the Portuguese wine classification system, which is roughly equivalent to a French Vin de pays. It is made with indigenous grape varieties.

Thanks to reader Marc for recommending this wine.

Casa Santos Lima

Quinta de Bons-Ventos 2008

VR Lisboa, Portugal

Oddbins

£5.99

3/5

Altano Douro 2007

I decided to try this Portuguese wine on impulse. I was thinking I should try more Portuguese wine and Waitrose has a decent range of them. This was on offer for £4.99 - perhaps it would be good, perhaps not.

It's produced by Symington Family Estates, which you may recognize as a leading port producer. The wine is a blend of indigenous grape varieties -Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) and Touriga Franca (a port blending grape). I think it's important to keep local grapes around in wine-making - they thrive for a reason, and the 'international varieties' don't always work in every grape-growing region.

Anyway, I actually didn't really like this wine. I find it too soft, and I don't really like the flavour, which tastes cheap. It would make a decent everyday table wine if I were partial to this style and if it were a pound or two cheaper.

Symington Family Estates

Altano Douro 2007

Douro, Portugal

Waitrose

£4.99

2.5/5

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Vintage Port 2000

I bought this a couple of weeks ago when it was £5 off (£14.99 from £19.99). I thought it was a decent price for a vintage port - although it's something I know next to nothing about. It's now going for £9.99 which is incredibly good value.

This port is quite good actually. It's a bit raisiny, but it's also complex and powerful. My friend who I was drinking it with remarked that it tasted different every time he took a sip - a good indicator of a wine's complexity. Like I said I'm not that experienced with vintage port, but I found this impressive, unlike 'normal' port or LBV, which I usually find underwhelming.

I reckon it's still quite young - it has a youthful acid core. Maybe another 10 years?

Also - apologies for not identifying the producer, I left the bottle at a friend's house. Will update with more info soon.

UPDATE: This port is what used to be called Martinez Quinta Da Eira Velha Vintage port. Martinez was acquired by Symington in 2006.

Sainsbury's

Taste the Difference Vintage Port 2000

Douro, Portugal

£9.99 (£19.99)

4/5

Tagus Creek Rosé 2007

Gold medal winning (IWC) winning rosé. Cheap. What's there not to like?

Well, a couple of things. I'm kind of going off these medium-to-full-bodied rosés for one thing. What's the point? If I wanted a red, I'd ask for a red.

I'm not really sure what the point of rosé is, but I do know that I like it. I guess it must be different for each person. I prefer my rosé to be basically like a white that tastes a bit like red fruit, not a red that's had water added to it, which is what this one reminds me of.

Anyway, it's rosé, so maybe I shouldn't be so critical, and it was just bad timing to trigger my rant about too-red rosés. It's good enough - it doesn't taste like cough syrup, Red Bull, or Ribena, and to be honest, that means it's a decent rosé.

Tagus Creek

Rosé 2007

Ribatejo, Portugal

Waitrose

£5.99

3/5

Tagus Creek Grande Vinho 2006

This is a super-affordable "big" red wine from the Ribatejo region of Portugal.

It's a blend of Shiraz and Touriga Nacional, a grape more famous for its use in port. Although the wine is quite full-bodied and rich, I don't think it quite lives up to the hype on the label. I find it a bit soft and grapey, but there are hints of complexity and it's drinkable for sure.

It was on offer for £5.99, so I bought a few bottles of it, and have only just opened the last one. Everyone I've served it to seems to really like it, so I'd say it's a success. At that price, it's definitely a good wine to stock up on if you're on a budget and feel like something with a bit of oomph to it.

Tagus Creek

Grande Vinho 2006

Ribatejo, Portugal

Waitrose

£5.99 (~£8)

3/5

Sogrape Quinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde 2008

Vinho Verde means "green wine" or "young wine", because it's meant to be drunk within a year or so of bottling. It is fresh, fruity and usually has a small amount of fizz to it.

I'm a bit confused as to the source of the fizz. I've heard that it's just "residual" CO2 left over from the fermentation process, and it is bottled before it is released. I've also heard that CO2 is injected into the wine. Perhaps both of these are true, and the real answer depends on the winery?

Anyhow, this wine is certainly fresh and fruity. The main scent/flavour for me is pear. And green grass. Two native Iberian grape varieties are used: Loureiro and Arinto.

Incidentally, this is the winery that produces Saddam Hussein's (allegedly) favourite wine: Matéus Rosé.

Sogrape

Quinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde 2008

Minho, Portugal

Waitrose

£5.19 (20% off)

3/5

Taylor's 20 Year Old Tawny Port

I bought this wine a few months ago, before Christmas at some point.  It was a bit of a random discovery.  Usually I stop by the fortified wine section to see if there are any interesting sherries on offer, but this time a small orange label caught my attention in the the port section.  It was the Taylor's 20 year old tawny port on for half price, something like £13.99.  There were only two bottles left, and I should have bought both of them, because after that they were gone, and I haven't seen it at all since, even at regular price.

Tawny port is a variety of port that is barrel aged for years on end.  I find myself at the moment appreciating fortified wines of the oxidized variety.  By this I mean wines that have been aged in barrels for decades, allowing oxygen to interact with the wine and mellow it out, change the colour (from red to a brownish hue), and impart a nutty flavour.   This is all opposed to the other way of ageing wine: in bottle, where interaction with oxygen is more restricted, preserving the fruit flavours and tannin for a much longer time.

What I mean by the previous paragraph is that I was kind of surprised (but shouldn't have been) by how much this port reminded me of Oloroso sherry, which has a similar ageing process: in barrel, unprotected from oxygen (unlike its fino brethren which is protected by a flor of yeast), for decades.  I've only had dry Oloroso, so the port was much sweeter, and I have to say I prefer the drier wine.  Having said that, the port is a much better match for things like blue cheese, where the sweetness is a great foil for the strong flavour of the cheese.

It's a complex drink, starting with dried fruit type flavours, and ending with that delightful toasted nutty taste.  It's also sweet and a bit syrupy.  Great as a dessert on its own I'd say, or with a cheeseboard.

Taylor's

20 Year Old Tawny Port

Douro Valley, Portugal

Sainsbury's

£13.99 (£27.99)

4/5

JM Fonseca Periquita 2007

Forget Chile...when it comes to value for money I prefer Spain and Portugal. If you prefer old-world style wines but don't want to pay through the nose, the Iberian peninsula is your place.

This white on offer from Waitrose is a spicy, aromatic wine made from a blend of Moscatel and indigenous grape varieties. It's best served well chilled, and is a perfectly good wine. At £2.99 (on offer), it's little wonder it's sold out at my local Waitrose...

JM Fonseca
Periquita 2007
Portugal
Waitrose
£2.99 (£4.99)
3/5

Graham's Late Bottled Vintage Port 2003

I picked this up by mistake thinking it was Taylor's LBV 2003 after reading a positive review of it somewhere. When we went to open it I was a bit shocked that I had screwed up, but it turns out it wasn't a bad choice after all.

This port won a Gold and Trophy at the International Wine Challenge 2008. I'm not too sure about these awards, as they seem to give out a lot of medals making me wonder how special they are, but I don't think it's total guff. I need to research them a bit more when I get the chance.

Anyways, the wine. I thought it was just OK. I'm sure it was correct and everything, but I think I find this style of port a bit boring. It's still enjoyable, but from the tastings I've been to I think I prefer older tawnys. I'd say "older vintage port" (proper vintage port as opposed to late bottled vintage), but I can't afford them, and I'm not sure I've really tried any...

If you're an LBV person however, this is one to check out.

Graham's
Late Bottled Vintage Port 2003
Douro Valley, Potugal
Sainsbury's
£8.99 (£11.99)
3/5