Tucked back in the Douro, Quinta da Casa Amarela

You’d probably miss the estate of Quinta da Casa Amarela if you didn’t know it was there. Tucked back in a small valley that eventually winds its way down to the Douro River just 1.5km away, it seems like it’s on a different planet. I say this as despite the unseasonably hot day (even for July in the Douro) the estate was awash in vegetation and bore no semblance to the sharp terraced slopes that line the epic path of the Douro. It was a calm place and there waiting […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.

by Miquel Hudin · source ↗

Read the full piece at the source →

What’s new in Vinho Verde at Casa da Torre

The heat, at 35C, was nearly bearable that day. Of course as with all things weather related in Europe over the last decade or so, this wasn’t ‘normal’, especially for the very northern region of Minho, Portugal. Gonçalo Sousa Lopes, the current member of the family to run Adega Casa da Torre did emphasize that things are cyclical. Heat happened like this 75 years ago he claimed. Just as I was about to wonder if he was a Climate Change denier, he said that the key difference now, it’s far […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.

Oh, that view from Vallado

I’ve visited Quinta do Vallado only twice, but both visits left an impression. They’re a fine producer of both Port as well as unfortified Douro wines and in fact they make one of the few VVOP wines that I’ve tasted. This is, “Very, Very, Old Port” which is, as the name implies, quite old and in this specific instance, the wine has a blend that’s 44% from 100+ year-old wine and includes a scoop of 1888 wine (akin to El Grifo in Lanzarote.) Then there’s another 40% that’s ‘merely’ 80 […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.

The broad view for Wines of Portugal

The first part of my trip to Porto for Alive Taste this summer was, to put it mildly, mind-blowingly hot–and this is from someone who lives on the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula. Thankfully, the initial day only saw brief kisses of the actually heat outside as I quickly hopped from plane to waiting car to hotel to bus and eventually finding my way to the “World of Wine” center created by Taylor Fladgate. Abbreviated as WOW, it absolutely lives up to its name with an intricate complex of […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.

Tucked back in the Douro, Quinta da Casa Amarela

Read more

What’s new in Vinho Verde at Casa da Torre

Oh, that view from Vallado

The broad view for Wines of Portugal