Some wines almost literally jump out of the glass at you. Well, not literally splashing at your face (unless you’ve gotten a hold of a very aggressive bubbly, and/or are trying to drink it on a treadmill at high speed – something that is thoroughly not recommended, by the way)… but with flavors and aromas that are so vibrant, flashy, and wonderful that they treat your olfactory senses to a veritable fireworks display.
Other wines are contemplative, more complex, demanding a bit more time and attention to reveal their elegant beauty – less like fireworks, and more like a stunning piece of wiry gold filigree jewelry, a latticework of interconnected and complimentary aromas and textures.
Esporão has taken three white wine grapes – one well-known, one largely unfamiliar to American drinkers, and one somewhere in-between those two extremes – and used hem to produce two quite different but equally intriguing wines in their latest batch of 2011 releases.
Fireworks & Filigree: 2 New 2011 White Wines from Esporão
First up is the 2011 Verdelho, made from vines in Alentejo that average ten years old, and is easily identifiable with its stunning “V” label design (for more on the pedigree behind that label, check out Notes From Esporão’s design feature on the Esporão labels and artists from last Summer). Verdelho isn’t exactly a household name in the U.S. like Chardonay or Sauvignon Blanc, but it’s not obscure, either; in fact, it’s been gaining popularity in America because of the value for money it offers in Portuguese white wines, and is seeing expansion in California as more winegrowers and winemakers there fall in love with its crisp, fruity aromatics and seek to reproduce the magic in their home state. Verdelho originates from the island of Madeira, and Esporão’s chief winemaker David Baverstock was actually the first to grow the grape on the Portuguese mainland.
Esporão’s 2011 Verdelho picks up almost right where their kickin’ 2010 version left off, which is where the fireworks come in – BAM! – it’s a stunning display of limes, passionfruit, and lip-smacking citrus, with an undercurrent of rocky, mineral goodness that holds everything together and gives those intense flavor explosions a firm launching pad on solid ground. In the past, we’ve talked about pairing Esporão’s 2010 Verdelho with baby fava beans and smoked sausages, and while the 2011 could hold its own with that fare, its vibrancy seems like a natural for seafood cerviche. Anyone else getting hungry…?
Next up – the filigree: Esporão’s 2011 Duas Castas (“two grapes”). Each year, the blend of grape varieties that go into 2 Castas changes, in order to show the best of what is grown during that vintage. In 2011, the blend features Semillon – well known as an elegant, powerful component to some of the longest-lived white wines in Bordeaux and Australia – and the more obscure Portuguese native Viosinho grape.
Poor Viosinho – its low yields of fruit made it unpopular with grape growers, and the only praise that the lofty Oxford Companion to Wine saw fit to give it was that it was “useful” (ouch!). Fortunately, Viosinho seems poised to make a bit of a comeback – it’s finding its way into Port and still white wines, and does particularly well in Alentejo where the abundant sunshine helps it to develop to its fragrant, floral best without falling prey to mildew.
The 2011 Duas Castas really shows off Viosinho’s potential – it ads a racy backbone and complex fragrances of orange blossoms to the more unctuous and silky Semillon. The result of the blend is an interlaced, complex, delicious wine, something greater than its constituent parts, which all come together elegantly like a gold filigree. Where the 2011 Verdelho is a perfect aperitif, the 2011 Duas Castas is a white wine for a big meal, showing its best after decanting and sporting enough steely structure to age for quite a long time in the bottle. And – this is the really fun part – it’s something totally different from what the 2010 Duas Castas presented. A fan of surprise and novelty? Well, you probably enjoy following along with Duas Castas from here and seeing if 2012 brings fireworks, filigree, or both!
0 comments:
Post a Comment