Portugal, best known for its Port wines, also makes a wide variety of other wines ranging from the fresh and crisp to the rich and robust. This Saturday will be pouring just a slice of the wines from the country starting with Vinho Verde in the far north to the steep slopes of the Douro valley and on to newer Alentejo region further south. Come have a taste and see where your tastes land.

Dalila, Vinho Verde $8
A blend of local grape varieties native to the far north of the country, the wine has a light spritz a nice floral aroma along with a touch of herbs and citrus. The wine is a big hit in summer but can be very enjoyable all year round.

2011 Esporao Verdelho $14
Herdade do Esporão is one of the premier wineries of the Alentejo region. Their Verdelho (the same grape as the Spanish Verdejo) has vibrant aroma with tropical fruit and limey citric notes. The palate is fresh and minerally, with a long and persistent finish.

2011 Esporão Alandra Red     $9
Moreto, Castelão, Trincadeira.
Esporão’s easy drinking red is made of a blend of three indigenous varietals. It has youthful fruit aromatics and light floral notes.

2004 Alves de Sousa Tinta Cao $13 (originally priced at $26) 
100% Tinto Cao
The Douro region is best known for port wine, but serious maker produce some fantastic dry red wines as well. Domingos Alves de Sousa produces his wines, according to a family tradition begun by his grandfather, which is today also taken up by his children. Domingos was voted “Producer of the Year”, by the Portuguese Wine Magazine Revista de Vinhos in 1999 and 2007. He is the only person to have won this award twice. Tinta Cão has been grown primarily in the Douro since the sixteenth century. The vine produces very low yields which has led it close to extinction despite the high quality of wine that it can produce. Sousa’s is a wild, untamed wine from a traditional old Douro Valley variety with plentiful fruit, firm crunchy tannins, leather and spice complexity, meaty fruit and superb freshness. Today we get it at a bit of a deal.

Quinta dos Murcas, Ten Year Tawny $30
Tinta Amarela, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca , Tinto Cão.
Quinta dos Murças, located not far from the town of Régua, dates as far back as 1714, It benefits from a unique landscape of steep slopes, terraces, vertically-trained vines, streams, vineyards and olive groves, This Tawny is fermented in the traditional granite legates with foot treading and is aged in used oak pipes of 700 liters for an average period of 10 years.  It is complex and nutty with notes of fig, hazelnut and vanilla.