Interview with Sarah Ahmed on why wines from Portugal are so exciting
Here are some of the key things on Portuguese wines that Sarah tells us in the interview:
If you are a wine lover you can not help being exited about Portugal and Portuguese wines. The country has a treasure trove of native grape varieties in the vineyards in all the wine regions.
So, what should one look for as a wine lover wine enthusiast? Look at the geography and the grape varieties. It is easy to fly to Oporto (Porto), there are great hotels, and excellent restaurants, the Vinho Verde region with the alvarinhos. Top alvarinho wines are great. Then you can travel not far and you come to port wine county and also Douro table wines. There are Atlantic wines and inland wines, very, very different in style. You can experience the differences travelling only short distances.
There are many great wines in Portugal but they do not sell as well as they could or should! What should Portuguese winemakers and wine producer do to sell their wines better? What is very important is education. The Portuguese make some very different wines, spelling is difficult, names are difficult, blends are sometimes difficult, since consumers are much more used to single grape variety wines. Education is the key! Use all sorts of communications: wine visits, participate in wine shows, use Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc.
Labels, back labels, are important, with good information on grape varieties, and other basic information.
Food and wine matches are also very important. Wines from Portugal are very good to combine with food. Show that! With the wines from Vinho Verde, Douro, Alentejo, Bairrada, Dao, etc.
So what is The Wine Detective, ie Sarah Ahmed? It is a nom de plume for the writing, the talking, the tutoring, and other wine communications that Sarah Ahmed does. The best way to learn is to taste, taste a lot of wines!
https://www.thewinedetective.co.uk/
– By BKWine
– Interview & production: Per Karlsson, BKWine
– Music: Patrik Lundin
© Copyright BKWine AB 2011-2012
[box type=”info”]If you are curious to learn more about Portuguese wines you can come on a wine tour to Portugal, for example to the Douro Valley or the Alentejo, with BKWine Tours.[/box]
3 Responses
Tried two Tagus Creek wines recently on offer at Asda, 2011 rosé Shiraz / Touriga Nacional and 2011 white Chardonnay / Fernao Pires. Not quite as good as the 2010s maybe, but this brand is a good idea, i.e. mixing Portuguese and more familiar French varieties to make easy going “contemporary” styles (did I just write that!). Was also in the Algarve a few weeks ago, where we had some good reds and rosés including one of Cliff Richard’s reds, which was pretty tasty. Richard
Richard, I agree, it’s not a bad idea to mix Portuguese and French varieties. it gives a local touch to the wine but still with a familiarity.
Planning a trip to Portugal and looking forward to tasting lots of wine while there. I totally agree with Sarah Ahmed that , “The best way to learn is to taste, taste a lot of wines!”.