Portuguese food and wine

Our recent holiday in Portugal was to the Algarve, a rare family holiday with our son and daughter, our first visit to Portugal which was superb in every way. There are a few photos of our villa on my other blog Aimetu's Stitching. We discovered beautiful beaches, rocky cliffs, villages, castles and of course wine and food.

Vinho Verde is a Portuguese white wine most people know as 'green wine' from its literal translation but it actually means young wine as it is only fermented for 3-6 months. Although most Vinho Verde's have a slight green hue which could represent its name it is actually the AOC for that region of Portugal. In the north west of Portugal wine has been produced here for over 2000 years and is Portugal's biggest wine producing region. 

We tried a few Vinho Verde wines whilst on holiday; at our villa, in the local bar and with dinner in Albufeira. There is a lovely crispness to this wine as well as an underlying fizz. Originally this hint of bubbles was due to the fermentation still happening in the bottle and did leave sediment. Over time the wine has become more filtered and now the 'fizz' is added by slight carbonation.  

Round of drinks in our local bar - this was my favourite Vinho Verde 

A very popular brand  - great with our BBQ
Casal Garcia

Having recently visited the Champagne region I was very keen to try Portuguese Sparkling Wine. There was quite a range in the supermarket and in all honesty we chose this one hoping it would not be too dry as our daughter prefers sweeter wine ... it was perfect, not too dry, not too sweet. Made from Bical, Cercial, Arinto and Maria Gomes grape varieties, all new to me, from the Bairrada region, this was very much enjoyed one sunny afternoon on our terrace midst the palms.

Portuguese traditional sparkling wine

Our village, Guia, is known for it's Piri Piri chicken and one restaurant in particular was very popular. It was the first to bring this spicy dish to the village in 1964. A very lively restaurant with fast service. We ordered one whole chicken Piri Piri style and one plain; it sounds a lot for four but Poruguese chickens are much smaller than here in the UK. Accompanied by Sangres beer for the chaps and Vinho Verde for the girls it was a very tasty meal; it's always good to try the locals' favourite.

Famous for bringing Piri Piri chicken to Guia

For our final night in the Algarve we dined at a traditional Portuguese restaurant. From the outside it looked like a plain building but inside was like being welcomed into a family home .... and there was so much food.

Colourful Portuguese restaurant

It was a buffet style starter, of which you could visit twice. So much choice from hot soup, seafood, mini pastries, variety of salads, deep fried vegetables, breads, meats .... such amazing food. 

Buffet selection

All so delicious

For mains I chose octopus, not something I often eat but it was perfectly cooked, delicious; it's so nice to try traditionally cooked food. Our daughter had sea bream; Hubby and our son had venison in red wine with chestnuts. All our mains were large portions and having over indulged on the amazing starters I couldn't manage all my octopus, shame I didn't know the word for 'doggy bag'!

Octopus main

The wine list was very extensive, so much choice, all Portuguese wine which made me realise we have very little choice in our purchases here. I'll certainly be looking into wines from Portugal as every bottle we tried over our week away was superb. I chose a white from Dáo for our fish (the chaps had beer), purely from knowing the region name - both our daughter and I enjoyed it and it matched my octopus really well.

Another lovely Portuguese white wine

The atmosphere, setting, food and hospitality at A Casa Do Avo was wonderful, I wish we had discovered this restaurant earlier as I would have liked to have tried a few other dishes. Complimentary port at the end of our meal made the whole experience a great last night of our Portuguese holiday.

The perfect end to our delicious meal 

A Casa do Avo

During our week a highlight for me was a visit with Hubby to Adega do Cantor which means Wine Cellar of the Singer .... the singer being a favourite of mine, Cliff Richard. I couldn't believe it when I discovered his vineyard was in walking distance of our villa, all be it a fairly long walk along country lanes along side the vines.

Adega do Cantor 

Cliff often visits the vineyard, his land being one third of the wine estate but unfortunately we missed him by a day. However I'm so glad we didn't miss the tour and tasting. Walking up the driveway lined with palm trees gave the impression of something special and maybe something different. The difference was apparent as soon as we started walking amongst the vines; some were brown and still in grape, others were green leaves and had been picked.  Another difference was the height of the vines, grown higher to help when it comes to harvest time, hand picking can be backbreaking work so higher vines are a real bonus.

Vines of many colours 

Succulent red grapes 

As I mentioned this estate is in thirds, three different locations, although close by, giving the opportunity to get the best growing conditions for the seven varieties of grape grown. Sitting under a very large sail canopy Anna gave us a very comprehensive talk about how Cliff started growing grapes, how the company progressed and where it is today .... up for sale for 6.5 million euro!

A tour of the wine making area followed, all outdoor under an extensive wooden roof. Although there was a variety of equipment the actual wine making set up was quite simple, a large press was used to produce the white grape juice and also the rose grape juice. These were then fermented in closed vats. However the red grapes were first put through a sorting machine to remove stalks and pips and although pressed they were fermented with the skins in open topped vats. Whilst fermenting the red grapes were mechanically stirred daily to prevent all the skins rising to the top and forming a crust, the open top vats allowed the carbon dioxide produced from this style of fermentation to escape. Quite a technical process, whilst we were visiting they were emptying the equipment - what a difference between the grapes going in and the waste coming out - this is spread over the vineyards to put the nutrients back into the ground - such a great idea.

Outdoor production

Vat tops ready for the next fermenting

What a lovely place to make wine 

The multi-tasking, hardworking press

Freshly picked

Reduced to this - ready to go back on the vineyard

The final part of any wine tour is of course a tasting, this was no exception and was without doubt the something special hinted at by the palm lined entrance. Held in a cave filled with barrels of maturing wine Anna guided us through four wines starting with Vina Nova Rosé ( Aragonês, Syrah). The other wines we tried were;

Vina Nova Blanco (Viognier, Verdelho,Arinto, Antáo Vaz)
Odna Nova Viognier
Vina Nova (Syrah, Aragonés, Alicante Bouschet)

My favourite was Odna Nova Viognier; a favourite grape of mine this had more depth than I have tasted before due to it being matured with oak shavings in the barrel, such a different taste to an oaked wine. All the wines were so clean and full of flavour, they are available from Well's Wines in the UK and if they have any stock left (they are no longer purchasing any) you may find some in Waitrose.

The four wines we tried 

Maturing barrels

Vida Nova signed tiles 

Every year Adega do Cantor produce a 3Q sparkling wine, the name representing the three estates. Last year's sparkling a white wine but this year a rosé and with only eight bottles left we quickly bought one to try back at our villa. It was perfect enjoyed poolside as an aperitif before our final BBQ, fully of bubbles and summer fruits but without being overly sweet.

3Q rosé

It was such a lovely afternoon in the gorgeous Portuguese sun amongst the vines enjoying great wine. My only disappointment, due to flying home and not in our car, was being unable to bring home a bottle of Cliff Richard's sparkling wine made in the traditional method and aptly named Congratulations.

Imagine my absolute delight to find it in the Duty Free, of course a bottle flew home with us and has subsequently been thoroughly enjoyed at home on my birthday- perfect, just perfect!

Cliff Richard's Congratulations