Força Portugal!

Last month I spent two weeks in central and southern Portugal with my family. There we encountered, along with the full-bodied, rustic reds and sprightly vinhos verdes that seem to define Portuguese table wines in the United States, a remarkable range of well-made, well-balanced, and delicious wines from a bewildering array of indigenous Portuguese grape varieties. (One of the sobering joys of working in the wine industry is that one always has so much to learn!) We also found lots of older vintages for cheap, in both restaurants and stores. Not all of the wines were good, but many were excellent, a few were superb, and all were great value. And of course, as is true throughout most of Europe, the combination of local wine and local food was almost always immensely satisfying.

I was particularly impressed with some of the white wines that are less known than vinho verde in the U.S. So imagine my delight when I returned to PMW to find a newly arrived $9.99 Portuguese white: Quinta do Alqueve Ribatejo 2005. The region is Ribatejo (northeast of Lisbon). The grape variety is fernão pires (the most widely planted variety in Portugal; no, I don't know that, either!). The taste is fruity and gingery in the mid-palate, with a snappy, racy finish. I love this wine, and everyone I've served it to has remarked on how much they've enjoyed it.

So stretch out and try a table wine from Portugal. They may not have beat France - in wine or in the World Cup - but I'm now convinced that they're worth paying attention to.