History, Individuality and Value: Portugal

We have spent the past few weeks tasting A LOT or Portuguese wine and we are consistently amazed by what we are tasting.  These wines are intriguingly diverse, delicious, and incredible values. When you hear of Portugal and wine, most minds jump right to Port, the famous fortified wines of the country.  As Port consumption has fallen over the past few decades, savvy Portuguese winemakers started making dry table wines from the traditional grapes used for Port.  These beautiful, fruit and spice driven reds opened the world’s eyes to the treasure trove of indigenous grape varietals this country has to offer.  Due to its relative isolation, Portugal is not awash in a sea of internationally ubiquitous varietals found in many other “value” regions.  Read on for some of our favorite new finds…

Loire Valley Abbondanza

The Loire is distinguished among all other French wine regions for its dizzying        diversity of wines. This can be attributed to the sheer size of the region, and the nearly two millenia of documented wine production history. Not to mention the countless changing cultural and political forces over history, whose conflict and confluence it would be impossible to explicate within the boundaries of this introduction.                      Read on for more and for tonight’s lineup…

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Rioting in the Name of Wine!

Matteo

I attended the inaugural Wine Riot this past Saturday held at the Cyclorama in the South End of Boston.  The event was organized by the progressive wine group The Second Glass, headed by Tyler Balliet, and Dig Publishing with support from important local Boston wine retailers, like The Wine Bottega!  The Wine Riot aimed at breaking down barriers and pretentious intimidations that are often associated with the wine world.  The concept was simple but novel and in my opinion something that cultivates the still burgeoning wine scene in Boston. 

Ricette Regionali del Friuli!

This Month’s Featured region is Friuli-Venzia Giulia, known for it’s incredibile Prosciutto di San Daniele as well as Alpine influences from neighboring Austria and Slovenia.  

Tagliolini al Prosciutto di San Daniele 

Tagliolini

Wine Pairing: I Clivi Galea or other Friulian white, preferable based on the Tocai (Friulano) grape.  THe bright acidity and soft fruit of the tocai is a perfect complement to the prosciutto and cream.

Recipe adapted from the Consorzio di Prosciutto di San Daniele (prosciuttosandaniele.it)  

Read on for the recipe…

Matteo’s Recent Underground Riesling Trocken Tasting

“I recently took part in a covert Riesling trocken (dry) tasting the auspices of which; time, place, and tasting colleagues will remain enigmatically undisclosed…The tasting was organized in a double blind fashion, so that even the organizer, who was gracious enough to share 16 or so of his wines, did not know the order in which they appeared.  All the wines were bone dry Rieslings, most of which were of German origin (more on that later).  It was not expected by the host but I brought along a wine of my own (a Bottega selection of course) that we threw into the first flight of wines but then later revisited allowing the wine to breathe a bit.