There’s more to Portuguese wine than just Oporto, and though it’s been true for centuries (since long before the invention of modern Port in the 18th century, it’s been hard to get excited about the wines . . . until recently. Portuguese wine has traditionally been grown in people’s back yards, often in quantities of a single row of grapes, or just a few vines. The result of this has always been that wineries had little control over their grapes because of the hundreds of people growing them. Over the last twenty years that has begun to change, as larger concerns have begun purchasing vineyards, and planting new grape sources. No one has ever doubted the potential for great wines from Portugual, it’s just taken a while to get there.

Caves Aliança is one of these larger concerns, and has had giant success in many regions across the country by planting large vineyards and placing modern winemaking facilities nearby, so as to have complete control over their grape sources. Quinta da Garrida is their property in Portugal’s Dão region. They own about 112 ha of land, of which 80 are planted to indigenous red and white grape varieties, the rest are left fallow. The wines from Quinta da Garrida are made by Francisco Atunes, the famous Portugese head winemaker for Caves Aliança, with the help of Pascal Chatonnet, the famous Bordeaux Enologist.

The grapes in Quinta da Garrida are Jaen, Tinta Roriz (a.k.a. Tempranillo) and Touriga Nacional. The wine spends twelve months in a combination of 80% French and 20% American barriques. The result is a robust, slightly rustic wine, with intense red fruit, fresh herb, smoke and spice flavors. In the Dão, they drink it with sausage, lamb, cured hams and hard cheese. Doesn’t sound bad to me at all. Drink now – 2013.