Colheita 2010
Outstanding value for money from the Dão
When searching for a wine to write about each week, I tend to be on the lookout for something new or at least something different, and hence avoid featuring wines from Portugal’s biggest conglomerates such as Sogrape, who produce this Quinta dos Carvalhais label in the Dão region, amongst countless other wines elsewhere around the country.
I have always known the Carvalhais wines, however, as being reliably good and fairly priced, but was surprised to see it served to me as part of a wine flight to accompany the tasting menu at Lisbon’s Michelin-starred Belcanto restaurant last week.
I was dining with a food and wine expert from the UK who could not believe that the wine we were drinking cost under €10 in the shops.
This is an extremely well made wine, the predominant Touriga Nacional grape coming to the front with its characteristic rich notes of plum and blackberry on the nose. Rounded and silky in the mouth with hardly noticeable oak from ageing in used barrels, this is quite a rich and full bodied wine by Dão standards, perhaps more in the style of a Douro costing a good few euros more.
Promotional price at Apolónia supermarket
(valid from Thursday 20 March to Wednesday 26 March)
QUINTA DOS CARVALHAIS 2010: €6.49 (retail price €7.99)
By Patrick Stuart [email protected]
