Portugal
2005, Red Wine
$7.99
Charamba is one of those rich, warm red wines from Portugal that are great for hunkering down on a cold winter night with a crusty loaf of bread, a slab of creamy butter and a steamy bowl of soup.
Quinta da Aveleda produces the wine. The company is owned by the Guedes family and also makes a previously recommended great summer wine, Casal Garcia.
Aveleda is one of the largest wine producers in Portugal and has a dominant position in the Vinho Verde region. Renowned winemaker Manuel Soares crafts Charamba from grapes grown in the higher, drier Douro region, where the great ports of Portugal come from. The wine is made from the four grapes that go into most ports before they’re fortified.
However, the grapes for Charamba and other Douro wines are grown at higher altitudes and don’t become as sweet as the lowland port fruit. As a result, the wines from the region are dry and well balanced. I’ve been drinking the 2005 Charamba, which is almost gone, and have found it to be very good. In his winemaker notes on the company’s Web site, Soares suggest that the wine might be even better if it is aged in the bottle for a few more years. The wine reaches its peak six to eight years from its vintage year.
Soares said that 2006 was a great year for Douros and the 2007 grapes were just as good if not better. So, there’s good Charamba to look forward to, even if there is a current scarcity.
I’ve found it in Woodstock at F.H. Gillingham and Sons and at the South Royalton Market. You also might try Norwich Wine and Spirits and Chapman’s in Fairlee. The New Hampshire Liquor Stores and the Hanover and Lebanon co-op foodstores also are good bets.
Vinho Verde
$6.99
Casal Garcia comes from grapes grown in Vinho Verde, a verdant region inland from the country's northwest coast that is Portugal’s largest designated wine district. Vinho Verde means “green wine,” which has nothing to do with color, but rather that it should be consumed young. In fact, it's generally recommended to drink Vinho Verde within a year of its bottling. (That's a bit tricky since the wine doesn't carry a vintage year, but the Portuguese government helps out by putting a reliable date stamp on the back of the bottle.)
One Vinho Verde, Casal Garcia Branco, has become a favorite white summer wine of mine. Its clean, crisp taste and very slight effervescence make it an excellent antidote for sultry weather. It's great either as an aperitif or with a main course of salad, fowl, fish or seafood.
Casal Garcia Branco is made for the Guedes family by respected winemaker Manuel Soares from a blend of four Vinho Verde grapes Trajadura, Loureiro, Arinto and Azal.
The wine has a distinctive light blue bottle and darker blue label, giving it an appearance that seems more reminiscent of Greece than Portugal, but the packaging is part of the Casal Garcia'’ long Iberian history. The wine has always been in the blue bottle, and the label features the famous linen and cotton embroidery made for centuries in Alto de Minho near the Spanish frontier.
Another Vinho Verde, Arca Nova, also is available in the Upper Valley for about $1 more a bottle than Casal Garcia. It's good, but it's slightly less dry, a little higher in alcohol, and it lacks the delicate fizz that makes Casal Garcia distinctive. Both "green wines" are very good, particularly for the money, but I think of Arca Nova as a good alternative to Casal Garcia, but not a primary choice.