Wines of Portugal Tasting

I attended a tasting of wines from Portugal this week.
Portugal is known for their Port wine, but other wines had been under the radar in international market for some time.
This is changing recently and I experienced the reason of the change at this tasting.

Mouchao from Alentejo.
Mouchao 2011 was aged for 3 years in barrel and 2 years in bottle.
Stewed red fruit, meatiness, and eucalyptus.

Jose Maria da Fonseca's Alambre 2010.
Fortified wine of Moscatel de Setubal.
Sweetness and citrus peel-like acidity. Oxidative qualities of coffee and honey.

Joao Portugal Ramos Wines
Duorum Reserva Old Vines 2009
Big wine, but not harsh. Eucalyptus and tobacco.

Port wines from Sogevinus
Kopke Colheita 1981 had Riesling-like petrol aroma.
Kopke Colheita 1978 was sweet and bitter like coffee jelly.
Kopke Colheita 1967. There was still freshness like ice water.
Kopke Colheita 30 YO White had deep sweetness like Yo-kan (Japanese sweet).
Kopke Colheita 2003 White 

All of them had good acidity to balance with the decent sweetness.

Quinta do Passadouro
Passadouro Touriga Nacional 2014
Complex aromas of dried fruit, herb, walnut and spice.

Wine & Soul
Very good wines. This winery can be my favorite.
Guru 2015. White blend wine. Nuts and stone fruit.
Manoella 2014. Fresh fruit and herb. Elegant wine.
Pintas 2014. Red blend of 85 years old vines. Perfumey and elegant tannins.
Pintas Character 2014. Red blend of 60 years old vines. Very expressive.
Quinta da Manoella Vinhas Velhas 2014. Red blend of 120 years old vines. Lots of herbs.

Ramon Pintos
Porto LBV Ramos Pintos 2011
Decent Port wine. Fresh flower and candied fruit.

Estreia Sparkling Loureiro 2016
Sparkling wine made from Loureiro with tank method.
It was fresh, fruity and easy to drink like Prosecco.

Port wines were good of course, and other wines were impressive, too.
The climate of Portugal experiences strong influence from Atlantic ocean but it can be hot and dry inland, so I was expecting that wines would be big, heavy and jammy.
In fact, many of them had strong structure but also had elegance at the same time.
Expressive fruits and herbs with strong backbone. Very good tasting.

Hinodeya Ramen in SF

I heard about a new Ramen store in San Francisco opened last year and wanted to try.
Hinodeya Ramen in Japan Town.

We went late, after 9 o'clock, so there was no line.

They use Dashi (kelp and dried bonito flakes) for soup, not the pork-based rich soup you usually see. They seem to be particular about ingredients to achieve the flavor of Dashi.

JC ordered Clam Ramen ($15)

and I ordered House Ramen ($14).

Soup had very good Dashi flavor. It was rich, but not heavy.
No gimmick. Simple, straightforward and good quality.
Clam Ramen had deep Clam flavor.
Noodle had good texture.

If you expect rich, volumey Ramen, you might be disappointed.
To me, it was perfect. I wanted to have Ramen like this: good flavor and no grease.

It could be a little pricey for Ramen, especially for the size (smaller than Ramen from other shops), but that's what it takes to use good ingredients, and I don't mind.
Ramen doesn't always need to be cheap and junk.

Maculan Wines

I had a chance to try wines from Maculan Wines, a winery form Berganze, Italy.
Berganze is a lesser known wine region in Veneto, but JC told me that this producer would make good wines, especially the dessert wines, so I was curious
.

Pino & Toi Bianco 2015
25% Pinot Bianco, 15% Pinot Grigio, 60% Tai.
Tai is a grape formerly known as Tocai Friulano.
Flower, green fruit and ripe citrus. Easy to drink.

Brentino 2013
50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Merlot.
Pyrazine smell of bell pepper and asparagus, then stewed plum and cedar.
Pyrazine is one of the characteristic aromas of Cabernet Sauvignon, but this one had a little too much.

Palazotto 2012
100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Black cherry, blackberry, cassis. Oak was there but subtle.
Fruit was ripe but not over baked. I liked this.

Dindarello Moscato 2015
This is a sweet wine made with Passito method.
Pronounced aromas of grape, melon, orange blossom, sugar coated kumquat and candied orange peel.
Good balance of the sweetness and the high acidity.

Torcolato 2011
100% Vespaiola.
Vespa means wasp in Italian.
This grape was named so because the sweet smell of their flowers lured wasps.  

This sweet wine is made by Passito method, too.
After the harvest, grapes are tied on a rope and hung from the ceiling like a braid for four months.
The name Torcolato (= twisted) comes from here (nowadays grapes are spread on crates for drying, though).

Aromas were of overripe banana, coffee candy and baked pear.
Refined sweetness.
Very good wine, as I was told.

The lady in the black dress was Angela Maclan.
It was very busy but she was attentive and explaining about wines to everybody with maps and pictures.
It of course made this tasting more informative and joyful.

Royal Tokaji 5 puttonyos 2003

Rare occasion to enjoy Tokaji.

Royal Tokaji 5 puttonyos 2003

This is sweet wine from Hungary.
Tokaji Aszu is made by macerating Aszu berries (grapes with noble rot) in the base wine.
The degree of sweetness depends on the amount of Aszu berries.
This is 5 puttonyos (puttony is the scale of sweetness).

This had text book flavors of apricot, honey and citrus zest.

We had this with Hiyoko: Japanese sweet with white been paste inside.

Very good pairing.

This Tokaji wasn't overly sweet and I liked that: sweet wine with freshness. Although I want to try Tokaji Eszencia (VERY sweet wine made from free run juice of Aszu berries, residual sugar 450 g/l !) one day.

Lyra Wine tasting

However small the tasting is, it's impossible to remember all the wines I tasted, so I try to remember the favorite ones and link the overall impression to those; however, I had hard time to name the memorable wines from the tasting I attended this day.

The Lyra wine tasting was relatively small, but each wine presented there had strong character like all the actors on the stage were playing the main role.
It's hard to tell which one outshone the other one.

They were all Italian wines.
I squeezed out some of the names especially memorable.

Ottella Le Creete Ligana 2015
Trebbiano Lugana is my recent favorite white grape.
Freshness and bitterness of grapefruit.

Ronchi di Cialla Schioppettino 2011 from Friuli.
Aromas of berry, chamomile, fennel and incense.

Castelfeder Gewurztraminer 2015 from Alto Adige.
Sweetness and bitterness of citrus zest. Flavors for adult (what does it mean?).

Musso Barbaresco Rio Sordo 2013
Fresh cherry. Strong structure.
There was power but not overly powerful.

Capichera Lianti Carignano Isola dei Nuraghi 2014 from Sardegna.
Cassis and coffee.
The hint of smokiness gave wine a good accent.

Cerbaiona Brunello di Montalcino 2008
Fresh and ripe fruit. Dried flowers and herbs. Liquorice, mint, earthiness.
Strong structure and fluid-like texture.

And this is the table for Big Guys.

Sapaio 2013, Elena Fucci's Titolo 2014, Perticaia's Montefalco Sagrantino 2011, Caiarossa 2011... wines of structure and delicacy.
It's impossible to choose one over another.

The tasting was held at a wine shop called Flatiron Wines & Spirits in downtown San Francisco.
It's right next to the Palace Hotel so easy to find.
They have huge selection which is clearly organized, and some of them are amazing deals!
Highly recommended!

Gooseberry

Gooseberry is the fruit often used to describe the aromas and flavors of Sauvignon Blanc.
However, I'd never seen the fruit. I looked for at stores but never saw them. One day, JC found and brought them home for me.

...Hoozuki?
This looked exactly like an ornamental plant called Hoozuki in Japan.
Hoozuki is not considered to be edible in Japan so I did a little research.
This fruit in the picture seems to be the fruit called Cape Gooseberry, not Gooseberry!
Cape gooseberry and Hoozuki belong to same family but not the same fruit.

It smelled very sweet like candy: he said it was because the fruit was very ripe and usually had more green aroma.
The flavor was like kumquat with a little bitterness.

It was tasty, but one thing I'm sure is the fact that I still don't know what Gooseberry is. My investigation continues.

By the way, if you see this in Japan, don't try to eat.
It's ornamental and said to give you stomach ache if you eat.