Douro & Birds

http://bit.ly/Qn_hotel

Grande Rocim Prémio Exceléncia 2009

Link: http://bit.ly/granderocim

Recommended by Robert Parker

Falcoaria Branco DOC Ribatejo

"I wonder how many people drinking one blind would think this charming, dirt-cheap wine was the equivalent of a $25 California Chardonnay."

Robert Parker




 Link:  http://bit.ly/casalbranco
 
 
 

Touriga Nacional é uma casta de uva que faz parte da espécie Vitis Vinífera e é considerado por muitos a melhor casta de uva Portuguesa. Como resultado de isto, o uso da Touriga Nacional continua a aumentar com os produtores Europeus, Australianos e Americanos. Enquanto é plantado em varias regiões dentro de Portugal, as uvas Touriga Nacional normalmente mostram melhor qualidade quando crescidos nos platôs do Dão.

Nos anos 90 existiam 2760 hectares de Touriga Nacional em Portugal. Mas, como a quantidade de uvas produzido é pequeno este numero representava só uma parte pequena na produção de vinho em Portugal. Isso ao lado, Touriga Nacional tem uma grande parte em produzindo os melhores vinhos do porto.

O uso da Touriga Nacional normalmente da os vinhos uma boa quantidade de álcool, aromas complexos e intensos e adiciona um sabor de frutos maduros muito concentrado enquanto faz o vinho bastante encorpado, dando o vinho uma boa estrutura.

English

Touriga Nacional is a variety of red wine grape, part of the species Vitis Vinífera, which is considered by many the best Portuguese grape type. As a result of this, the use of Touriga Nacional continues to grow in European, Australian and American wine production. While planted in various regions in Portugal, the grape tends to show its best qualities when grown on the plateaus of the river Dão.

In the 1990's, there existed 2760 hectares of Touriga Nacional in Portugal. However, since this grape has quite small yields, it still only represents a small part of the wine production in Portugal. Nevertheless, this grape still plays a major role in producing the finest port wines.

The use of Touriga Nacional usually gives a wine a good quantity of alcohol, intense and complex aromas and it tends to add concentrated flavours of black fruit to the wine while creating high tannins and providing good body and structure.

ProWein 2010

Link: http://bit.ly/arrepiado


O Arrepiado Tinto 2007 foi premiado com uma medalha de ouro no Premium Select Wine Challenge - ProWein 2010 em Alemanha.

The Arrepiado red wine 2007 was awarded a Gold medal in the Premium Select Wine Challenge at ProWein 2010 in Germany.

Port Wine Vintage Years

Vintage years so far into the 21st Century

As of today, the world of port has seen three years in the 21st century being declared as vintage. The first year, 2000, was a very unstable year in terms of weather, Febraury and March were warm, April and May were rainy, in July and August there was some rain and in September the temperature stabilized around 40°C. As a result, harvesting was delayed a couple of weeks but all this gave the grapes such a quality to cause various wineries to declare the year 2000 a vintage year.

The second year which was declared as a vintage was 2003. This year, the winter was rainy, spring was dry and temperatures were normal except for in July and August when temperatures were around 45°C during the day and 30°C during night. The port wines produced had a lot of body which may turn out to be a good base for aging.

2007 has been declared by most of the well known producers to be a vintage year. It was a very cold year in comparison to previous years and so 2007 ports seem to follow the general trend of being acid, concentrated and with little body, which results in a very balanced and structured wine. While this year has produced a lot of good wines, certain people seem to think that the 2007 ports will not age as well as the 2003 wines. Wine tasting expert Roy Hersh (who was knighted into the Port and Douro Wine Institute (IVDP)) has the opinion that ports from this year will age well over the next couple of decades but doubts that further aeging will improve the wines.

For your reference we have listed all the vintage years from the 20^th century below

20^th Century Vintage Years

1900 1958

1904 1960

1908 1963

1911 1966

1912 1967

1917 1970

1920 1975

1922 1977

1924 1978

1927 1980

1931 1982

1934 1983

1935 1985

1942 1987

1945 1989

1947 1991

1948 1992

1950 1994

1955 1997

Azeite/ Olive oil "Dona Berta"

O azeite "Dona Berta" acaba de ser considerado dos melhores azeites extra virgens do Mundo. Assim o classifica o prestigiado FLOS OLEI 2010 - guia dos melhores azeites extra virgem do mundo - publicado por MARCO OREGGIA.

MARCO OREGGIA provou e seleccionou milhares de amostras de azeites provenientes de 40 países incluindo, para além dos tradicionais produtores mediterranicos, os países do novo mundo e até a China, Japão e Brasil.

English

The olive oil "Dona Berta" was recently selected as one of the best olive oils in the world. It received this classification by the prestigious FLOS OLEI 2010 - Guide to the worlds best extra virgin olive oils - published by MARCO OREGGIA.

MARCO OREGGIA selected and tested thousands of olive oils from 40 different countries including the traditional olive oil producing mediterranean countries and countries such as China, Japan and Brazil.