Foreign fling

Cathy van Zyl MW looks at foreign wines available in South Africa

Index to previous columns

Listing of local distributors and importers of non-SA wines

Listing of retailers carrying non-SA wines

Two Portuguese wines

• Quinta da Fonte do Ouro Reserva 2003 R65

• Quinta da Fonte do Ouro Touriga Naçional 2003 R165

For availability, contact the importers, Melgab International Email; Website

It is typical of the attention to detail Stefano Gabba pays to his business that he sent me several wines to review – and not all Italian, despite his portfolio’s leaning to wines from his homeland. No doubt, he’d read past Foreign Fling postings and realised that as Italian wines had been featured previously, perhaps I’d like to ring the changes.

He couldn’t have been more right ... and there are not many Portuguese wines available locally, so it was with gusto that I approached the two wines from Dão he’d included.

An inland production zone in the northern half of Portugal, Dão is bordered by Bairrada to the west, Beiras to the east and the Duoro (the origin of port) to the north. Further south is the Tagus River. Upwards of 80% of the region’s production is from red grapes such as touriga naçional, tinta roriz, and jaen but quality has been variable and heavily influenced by bureaucracy. For example, legislation in the 1950s to 1980s gave co-operatives the sole rights to buy grapes and restricted private firms to purchasing finished wine. Sound familiar?

Prior to this intervention, the region’s reputation as a quality red wine area was recognised when it became a Região Demarcada in 1908. Today, the more common term is Denominacão de Origem Controlada (DOC) and there are numerous attempts to revitalise the region’s quality red-winemaking tradition; the producer of the wines reviewed here being just one of the newer initiatives.

Sociedade Agrícola Boas Quintas was formed in 1991 and bottles its wines under the Quinta da Fonte do Ouro label, which also feature beautiful illustrations.

The less expensive is a blend of half touriga naçional, plus tinta roriz (better known to us, I suppose, by its Spanish name, tempranillo), jaen and trincadeira. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in tank before half of it is aged for nine months in French oak. After bottling, it is bottled aged a further six to 12 months. The term ‘Reserva’ on the label is an indication that the wine has received this ‘special attention’ and is therefore to be regarded as a step up the quality ladder.

I found the wine wonderfully spicy and red-fruited with a refreshing acidity and clean finish, and the oak was well-judged for the fruit intensity, adding complexity as opposed to detracting from the grape. The alcohol was a respectable 13%, and this complemented the wine’s Old World charm and dry finish. I suspect it is a wine for drinking now but don’t see that a year or two in the cellar will harm it.

I found the dearer bottle more impressive, although Angela Lloyd, who tasted these with me, didn’t concur. From only touriga naçional, it was far more modern in style than the tinta, and had spent a year in French oak and another in bottle before release. The fruit in this wine was obviously riper; there were spice and savoury notes but these were bolstered by rich black fruit aromas and flavours. I really appreciated its tangy acidity, given its oak sojourn had imparted a distinct sweet vanilla character to the palate. This wine has the structure and intensity to benefit from up to five years’ cellaring.