Caves São João, Bairrada, Poço do Lobo 1995, branco
This was current release when I bought it 2-3 years ago. 100% Arinto. 12% alcohol. Slightly tarnished brassy gold color. Waxy pear and lemon, a slightly oxidized taste. There is almost a green savory quality - like cooked fiddleheads - on the finish, similar to what carricante sometimes gets. Pretty lively and quite alive at 25 years of age, with bracing acidity. With air it almost becomes a bit honeyed (but dry), along with some passionfruit. I imagine this would go well with salt cod dishes. A-
Luis Seabra, Douro branco, Xisto Ilimitado, 2018
After reading the hype on this former winemaker at Niepoort I simply had to try one. This is a very light pale color wine full of citrus and saline with a light body and a green peppery (watercress?) finish. There’s good acidity but I feel it lacks a little structure for aging and would opt to drink within a couple of years. Very refreshing and a great summer sipper. This will keep you licking your teeth. To me like a cross between godello-melon-chenin blanc, actual varieties are: 50% Rabigato/20% Codega/15% Gouveiro (godello)/10% Viosinho. B+/A- 12.5%
Thanks for these, Markus,
So much of interest is happening in Portugal and at such good value, it’s hard to keep up, though I am of course familiar with both of these producers.
Thanks for the notes. All of the Caves São João wines have aged and are aging really well, particularly the whites from their Frei João series. The 1980s ones are really singing today, and all of these wines are outstanding value for their quality.
Luís Seabra was indeed the engineer to Dirk Niepoort’s architecture. Sadly they had some sort of falling out - I’m not aware of the details. The Muxagat wines from Douro are also Luís Seabra’s and they’re a project looking into. There’s even a fine Riesling (is there a less obvious choice for planting Riesling than the Douro?).
It’s actually pretty crazy; I live in Portugal, I get privileged access to a lot of recent releases and I’m still discovering producers. The biggest wine event in the country is the Essência do Vinho, held annually in Porto, and there are around 400 producers there.
It usually takes place in Lisbon (Centro de Congressos de Lisboa, in Alcântara) in October, and then in Porto (at Palácio da Bolsa) in February. The Porto event is the main attraction, although the Lisbon event still has a good deal of producers. This year it happened just in time, as COVID-19 lockdown measures started in March. Phew…
It’s been a while since I’ve had any of the Frei João wine(10+ years), but some of the older reds were terrific, and they sold for a song. I almost never see them on shelves in NY, sadly.
They’re still cheap - I don’t think they sell anything over 60€, even the really old vintages, and there’s a lot of them in the 15-25€ range. I had the 1990 Frei João red recently and it’s still not at full maturity - packed full of youthful tannin and bite.