Welcome back to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Pat. I handle specially spirits here at Binny's. With me is Roger. I'm Roger. I do beer marketing and education. I'm Greg. I do communications at Binny's. I'm Barb Steadman, Assistant Director of Wine Sales. That sounds like an important title. I'm very fancy. Okay, cool. Well, speaking of fancy, we're here for another wine episode. Barb is going to teach us about Portuguese wine, and I'm going to ask stupid wine questions. I look forward to it. Yeah, it should be fun. And we should also note that, Barb, you did just visit Portugal. Oh, I didn't know that. So, yeah. Where were you in Portugal? Seriously, where have you been? I thought the Barb goes to Portugal thing was like just something he was saying. Like I'm just going? Yeah. A couple months ago, I spent a week in Portugal, traveling throughout wine country all over the region, and it left such a big impression on me. I can't help but come back and share it with you. It's really exciting and very impactful. Cool. I mean, when we think Portugal and wine, it tends to just be like sweet, vintage-dated fortified stuff, which is good. We've talked about that before with Bill Noon, right? Yeah. Port's awesome. That was great. Definitely what the country is known for is fortified sweet wines from Porto. Those are ports and Madeira, which is one of my and Roger's favorite categories. But the point I want to make today and really stress is that this country is doing so much more than just fortified wine and the cheap Vinho Verde you find on shelves everywhere. What regions did you visit? All over the country, we started, literally got off a plane in Lisbon and I went southeast from there into Alentejo and we'll talk about that in a minute. But then I went into Dao, up back through the coast, up into Douro, which is the most famous region there, and then back over to the coast to Porto in Villanova de Gaia. But all over the country, very small, very condensed but extreme differences in terrain, diversity of varietals, and culture. So, really overall, the lasting impression for me is, when I got the plane in Lisbon, I knew fortified wines, like we were saying, and I knew Vinho Verde from the Northwest Coastal region, and I knew Red Table wines. And that was pretty much it. And I can tell you with absolutely no hesitation, this is the most surprised and impacted I've ever been coming home from a wine region. It's absolutely phenomenal. Really? Yep, yep. That's good to hear. What kind of food did you eat while you were there? Yeah. Tell us about the shellfish. Well, I'll tell you, the national cuisine is called Bacalhau. It's a salted cod. And I had it two to three times a day for about six days in a row. Salted cod. And it's like on foil or something, right? They give it to you in a newspaper? They gave it to us in a lot of different formats. And to be fair, like the people were very kind and very hospitable. The food wasn't the star of the show. Wow. That's nobody ever says that like we ate like crap, but the wine was good. I wish I could report better things, but a really nice young lady I met in Alentejo region in the town in Evora said, we've always been kind of a poor country and we're really limited by the ingredients that surround us. So we do our best to make food flavorful with these really humble beginnings. And I thought that was really cool because they did feed us really well. The food was delicious and very approachable. It was a lot of the salted cod dish. What about sausage? Linguicia, right? They did a lot of charcuterie and local cheeses. Super, super proud of everything they do locally. And then a lot of slow roasted meats. So like two or three days it was slow roasted meat, like beef, pork. We had rabbit one day and it was a lot of the same kind of dishes like that, very pastoral kind of stews. And you know, regionally speaking, they all went very, very well with all the wines they produced too. So nothing against the cuisine in Portugal. But I was actually really surprised that it wasn't more regionally specific and that I didn't encounter more fresh seafood. It doesn't sound like you had shellfish at all. No, I don't think we had shellfish at all. I had fresh octopus one day. That was like the first day we were there just outside of Lisbon. But other than that, it was a lot of salted, slow roasted stuff and that's just what they do. Did they make any muffins, like English muffin? They used to, I lived out East. I think you're referring to the Portuguese muffin. Yes, exactly. Did they make Portuguese muffins? It would sound stupid if I said it that way, wouldn't it? I don't know. I think it sounds pretty matter of fact myself. Yes. I don't recall any Portuguese muffins. This has been one of my esoteric things that I've been chasing for years, because Trader Joe's used to actually carry these. A Portuguese muffin is a lot like an English muffin. They're bigger, they're slightly sweet, and they're yellowish. I don't know. They were awesome. So I was curious if you came across them. Sounds like no. I'm glad your daily salted cod regimen is on point with how I approach haggis eating when I go to Scotland. Basically, I think that is probably the equivalent. Every meal, every day. Yeah, I was like, oh, great, Bacalhau again. That's fantastic. But again, they were very gracious and hospitable, so you never turn down a good meal, regardless. Can I ask you about varietals? Yes, please do. So, we all know Toriga Nacional, right guys? Eh. What? And other than that, Portuguese varietals is just completely obscure for most wine drinkers. So, what are they growing? What are they making? So, Toriga Nacional is definitely the best known indigenous varietal there. They say it start, both Duoro and Dau kind of claim it, that it started there, but that's the driving force in most regions. However, again, I want to stress the diversity here from region to region to region. In Alentejo, we're going to taste this one in a second. The driving grape there is Alicante Buche, which we think is indigenous from Portugal, but it exists in France and other parts of the world. It's all obscure, right? And that American wine drinkers aren't going to know any of them. Exactly. And they're different everywhere. Exactly. And to further complicate things, they all have clones of Tempranillo and they call them different things everywhere, and they're different clones too. For the most part, and also, their other local grapes are known by different things colloquially. Yes. Tempranillo is really only two things in Portugal. In the south, they call it Aragonese, and north of Lisbon, they call it Tinturoriche. So this is one of the challenges of Portuguese wine becoming mass popular in America, is that it makes Italy seem simple, and Italy is befuddling. To talk about varietal specificity in Portuguese red wines in particular is to not do justice to the style of each region. And if we're talking about average consumers, people purchasing and drinking these wines, it doesn't matter. So it's just local red. Local red. This is a local wine from Alentejo, or it's from Dau, or it's from Douro. And that's really the important thing to keep in mind. There are a lot of varietals, and most of them are very, very difficult to pronounce. And I do think that that's why some of these wines haven't taken off the way others have. Shiraz was really easy to say and people embraced it. Malbec, really, really easy to say and people embraced it. Portuguese red blends in particular, the value is there, the quality is there, the accessibility, universal appeal, it's all there, and it really should be the next big thing. But I think the thing holding it back is we can't say Turiga Nacional, we can't say Turiga Franco, we can't say Tinto Roariche, we can't say Alvaro Chero, it's really difficult. All of those things are spelled differently than what she just said. And they all the same, right? No, I'm just kidding. So all these reds are just blends of whatever varietals happen to be traditionally grown and most successful in that particular locale. Yeah, and each vineyard manager or winemaker that I met and asked that question of, especially the region in Alenteix, which is in the Southeast, where they're doing a lot of Alicante Boucher, and that is very, very unique. Nobody else in the world is making wines driven by that varietal. That was usually my question, why this here versus Torrego Nacionale versus something else? The answer was almost always just because that's what was planted here when we got here. That was super charming. That's great. Like, hey, why do you grow this grape? And they're like, what? I thought they were going to say, yeah, what kind of grapes are these? The grapes. Yeah, grapes. No, they're very intelligent and they know what the grapes are, and they know what to do with them. But for the most part, this idea of what is the assemblage, I learned this in Bordeaux as well, that's a very American thing. Like, what grapes, what percentage of which grape make up this blend? Nobody else in the world really addresses that the way the American consumer does. So what I want to again drive home today is, the grapes doesn't really matter. It's about the style and the kind of foods or the kind of situations you would drink them under. Yeah, it's so American. We want to know the ingredients. We don't have the sense of place. Iowa is the size, Illinois is the size of several states in Italy. How does Portugal compare to Illinois? I think it's about the size of Illinois. Right? So they're getting super specific locally, and that's what they know. And we have cars and drive three states in a day for a vacation. It's a completely different approach to everything. You want to try this wine? Yeah, I want to start with this first wine I passed around. This is from Dao. So, this is a region in kind of central Portugal. And this is going to be the most unique, I think, of the three wines we taste, three red wines we taste today. And it's the first one I passed around because it is the lightest-bodied and most delicate. I don't know that I've ever smelled a wine like this before. When I first poured it, I had mentioned, I think, before we started recording, we had just poured this, and I thought it was very, like, perfumey and floral. You said potpourri. Potpourri, yeah. But now I'm getting, like, the cedar note to it. I don't recall smelling wine like this before. That's really great to hear. When I came back, this is the region about which I was most enthralled and most surprised. These are, again, these are local varietals. The leaders here are grapes called alfajero and jayan, which in Spain they call mencia. That's up in the northwestern part of Spain. But otherwise, again, there's a couple other local varietals, but you can taste and see this is kind of lighter-bodied, would you say? Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, more delicate. I found wines from Dowbell, threads and whites, to be incredibly finessed and pretty. I think these speak to people who like wines maybe from Burgundy, lighter-bodied wines from Oregon, just yeah, very aromatic and the potpourri and the floral notes is something that is a regular tasting note. It develops a little more fruit on the palate for me though. It doesn't taste, I don't think it tastes as floral as it smells. I don't know what I'm tasting though, but there's like almost a drying bitterness in the back. Bitterness is the wrong word, but it's almost like a woodiness that's balancing out that floral note, but it's really drying on the finish for me. I agree, the cedar is there. Reedy, chicory note. Interesting. And like dried out cherries, like not ripe cherries, but dry ones. It's got some minerality on the finish too. Yeah, I like that too. It's a really clean, like kind of stony style. I like this, this is a good wine. Yeah, and I think this is a good starter for an exploration through Portuguese red wines because it is gonna be the most different in the Binny's set. I had no idea these kinds of wines existed in this country. I thought they were kind of all... You mean wines with finesse and complexity? I'm sorry. You mean lighter-bodied wines with intricacies? Lighter-bodied wines that are more delicate and finesse. Yeah. This one's like 16 bucks on the shelf. What's the name of this one? This is DAC, DAC, Red Wine Blend from Dow. An interesting thing to note about this bottling in particular is it actually says Red Wine Blend on the label. Because the Portuguese folks, while they're very much, they're one foot steeped in very rich tradition of several centuries of wine making, they're also very interested in innovation and what's happening in the current market. They asked me a lot of questions, asked our group a lot of questions about what consumers in our markets want. This is a really smart move on their part to just call it Red Wine Blend. Keep it simple. Yeah, totally cool. That's not a very traditional European outlook on the wine business. I think a lot of times it's like, we make what we make, you want it or you don't want it. By the way, folks listening at home, this maybe applies more than usual, but this is true all the time. We put the names of the products that we taste in the episode description. So check out the episode description on your podcast player or visit binnys.com/blog for links to all of the products that we have in this episode, especially here when it's like difficult to spell and search. And pronounce. DAC from Dao. Do they make port in Dao? No. No. Which of the of the regions that you brought here, do they make port? Douro. Douro, correct, is where the grapes are grown. Yeah. And the wines are vinified and then they actually age them in the town of Villanova de Gaia and ship them out in the city that's on the other side of the river called Oporto. So they make, do they grow grapes in Porto too? They do, right? No. No. Porto is a port town. All right. Well, Bordeaux is a port town. Same. So, we're not talking about port. Lay off. Stop talking about fortified. So, if the people who actually have had port and have had a handful of Portuguese wines probably have the same preconception that you had heading to Portugal, which is that even if it's not a fortified wine, it's a rich, extracted, big, heavy wine. And this is not... Here's my black turtleneck, but this is for the fan of the obscure Beaujolais that's richer than the usual Beaujolais. Or if you like wines from... What is the island way off the coast of Spain? Mallorca? Canary Islands? Yes. And if you have tried and fell in love with a red wine from the Canary Islands. Or Sicily. Or, yeah, okay, fine. That's actually available here. But yeah, for sure. Like, no, yeah, Sicilian, you know what? Your Nero drinker is going to love this. Yes, absolutely. That should be the jam. And for those that love, again, Burgundy or really Pinot Noir from anywhere in the world, red wines from Dao are a great study because it has that light, delicate, very fresh mouthfeel. But it's a little bit different flavor profile. It does have some Trigo Nassio and all in it, usually to give it some depth and weight. But these are definitely wines for those who like lighter-bodied, highly mineral-y red wines. And especially with a little bit of a chill, this one is such a good value. Again, 15 bucks on our shelf. Not bad. Cool. So, speaking of the more kind of extracted, jammy, fruit-forward, juicy style, I'm gonna pass around this bottling. This one's gonna come from Alatesh, so that's back down the southern portion of the country. And little bit of wine trivia, this is where a lot of the cork trees are. So, as we were driving through, I didn't see too much about cork or cork production, but we did see a tree or two. What do cork trees look like? They look like trees. Well, I mean, a pine tree doesn't look like a maple tree. So, is there some kind of comp you can give us for trees that we have locally? Dissiduous versus coniferous. They're dissiduous. I would say. Okay. Dissiduous is a broadleaf tree that has these more coniferous as pine cones. It's a trunk and branches and leaves. Jesus Christ. All right, everybody, for an illustration of a cork tree, turn to the childhood classic Ferdinand. There's also a picture on the label of this wine I'm passing around, sir. It looks like that? It looks like that. Oh, look, the label looks like cork too. The label is cork. If this was, well, it's. It is. I don't think it's cork. I think it's just. I think it is. Manufactured. If they're from the land of cork and they're putting fake cork on the label, they're going to be strung up by their ankles. Barb, I think this is actually cork. Yeah. I dug into it with my fingernail. Yeah, so did I. This was one of the. All right. If you want to know what a cork tree looks like, check out São Miguel do Sul with pride from the land of cork right on the bottom. São Miguel do Sul. This wine comes from the southern part of Portugal, where a lot of the cork trees grow. It's probably their claim to fame as well as this style of wine. Again, this is driven by Alicante Buche. They also do Castelão, some Turiga Nacional, Aragones, once again, that's the local version of Tempranil. I believe this one might have a pinch of Syrah as well. There are some international varietals in this region, but this comes from a spot called Casa Relvach I visited, and met the winemaker there and his dog, Ernesto, who is adorable. But this is more of the style of red Portuguese table wine that I always equated. You like it? Yeah. Yeah. What do you like about it? I like that it's a little fuller and a little jammy or fruitier, than the last one, it isn't quite as perfumey, potpourri, and it still has that bit of a woodiness in the finish that gives it a little, that gives it almost a quenching sensation. Smells like a really big zin. It has that peppery quality. Yep. That big bang of spice, I think that woodsy, the oak presence is there. Raj, what do you think about this? It seems to me like it has a very interesting, which I don't expect from the get go of vanilla note. I don't know if it's from the oak or what, but yeah, I like it. It's nice. It's got a lot going on for sure. It's layered. Yeah. I tasted a lot of wines in this region, from this region. We spent basically two days there at several different properties. Again, this is really driven by Alicante Bichet, which is one of those fancy red juice, red-skinned grapes, which is very rare. We call that a Tonturier. Alicante Bichet is this big, really gobby, very fleshy, just tons and tons of juice and jammy style. The blending really, really works to its advantage. You've got to get something in there to elevate the acidity. But this is definitely a teeth-stainer region of the world. I think I brush my teeth three or four times every day after tasting. But I really liked this property. They made some really impactful red and white wines. And I had no idea until I came back and actually did find it on our shelves. So I was really happy to see that. Pat, what would you pay for this bottle of wine? I'd probably pay like 18, I think. $18, Greg? $12. Roger, what say you? Yeah, I mean, my wine experience is limited, but comparably to some of the other things we've tasted here, I would think somewhere near almost $20. You can pick up this bottle at your local Binny's Beverage Depot for $9.99. I know. What a bargain. Yeah. So another huge takeaway, number one is the diversity of different regions and styles. Number two is the extreme value that these wines offer. For people who are shopping California Red Blends day in, day out, I won't disparage any big commodity brands, but there are a lot of them out there. These are as good, if not better. They're interesting, they'll impress your friends, and they're also under $10. I can't stress highly enough how great this style of wine is for parties, family events, super user-friendly, fruit-forward, juicy, but more interesting than your average grocery store, 899 wine that will remain nameless. I'm glad you guys like it. Yeah, this is really good. I like this wine a lot. I think this is the style people are accustomed to, but maybe haven't visited frequently enough. This is the kind of wine I think can really help continue to increase visibility and sales for this category. It's ripe and easy. Yeah. Anybody who's looking for a summertime red, that's easy recommendation. Yeah, it'd go with anything, everything, or it's fine on its own. Cool. Yeah. Moving up the coast. All right. So yeah, back up through central and into northern Portugal, we're going to get into Douro. And this is the region that's most serious and most easily recognized for people. And I can tell you guys, we were on a bus, like eight of us, for six days. And in the middle of the fifth day, I looked out the window and said, holy because that is absolutely how different the terrain is just out of nowhere. You know, I was in three, four different wine regions and I'm lucky enough to say I visited a lot of different wine regions in the world. And after a while, they all kind of start looking the same. Okay, it's a lot of vineyards, maybe different soils, but there's grapes upon grapes. And sometimes there's hills and sometimes it's flat. And I got into the Douro and there's absolutely nothing like it that I have ever seen, the steepness of the slopes, their terraced vineyards. It's phenomenally impressive and just so incredibly beautiful and charming. It was also extremely hot when I was there during the day. How hot are we talking? It's been real hot here lately. Well, this was the beginning of May and the first day in Lisbon, it was 94 degrees. Yeah, into Lisboa and Alenteche. It was in the 90s, the first couple of days, and that was out of character for the region. People told us, they're like, yeah, it's unusually hot. As we got further back north and closer to the coast, it cooled down again. And the last morning we were there was actually in the 50s and kind of rainy. So there was a lot of variability, but hot, hot, hot, hot in Lisbon and Alenteche. And that was only in May. This last wine that went around, this is from Dorro. I think it's gonna hopefully prove my point that each of these red wines is very different from each region. If you wanna make comparisons, we said, Dao is like Burgundy or Oregon, and the wine that we tasted from Malintage is kind of like California or maybe Australia in its ripeness. This one is a lot more like Bordeaux. It's very serious, they're structured wines, a lot more powerful, right? So this particular wine we sent around is from Pratts & Symington. And this is their Post Scriptum. This is a partner wine, they call it, to their flagship, which is called Chyrseia. That is a plot of land I actually saw from the middle of the river on a boat, which is probably the coolest thing I've ever done in wine country. But this is kind of their partner wine, or we would call it second wine. And yeah, the Symingtons have been in Portugal since 1882 in Douro and kind of founded that. They now, the family owns a lot of the big houses you would have heard of like Graham and Dow and Juarez. And then Bruno Pratts got involved after departing from Costa Esternal in Bordeaux. And the first vintage they made with this property was in 2000. But this is the 2016 we tasted. Again, pretty much equal parts Triga Nacional and Triga Franca. Symington sounds like old money English. It is. I thought it was around Symington. You can smell some money on this wine. Yeah. Yeah. Is this wine more tannic? I would say, yep. Okay. You can smell how it's sleek and it's constructed. And I don't want to disparage them, but you can tell that you got quality grapes that they threw some wood at too, like some quality wood. What kind of wood do they use mostly down there? Barb, is this mostly French oak or Spanish oak? A lot of different sizes of oak, which is interesting. A lot of French. However, throughout the country, they do a lot of aging in Amphora, which is those big clay pots. So there's a lot of oxidative qualities in some of the red and white wines. Do we have any of those? I would like to try one of those. Well, there's some of them. Cut all this. There's some of an oxidative quality in this wine. Like, if there's like a brick red quality, right? Among with the cherries and raspberries. High five. I actually think that I'm always pretty sensitive to the more tannic wines. I actually think the first wine we tried was drier than this, but the fruit that I get off of this is awesome. Yeah. I think Turiga Nacionale coming through, this is equal parts of that, and Turiga Franca, those are the driving forces in Douro. However, there they're also working with what we call field blends, where what we're used to when we construct red blends is you tank the Keb, tank the Merlot, tank the Syrah, and then when it's all done, you blend it all together and make a cuvee. When we talk about field blends, these are actually varietals planted together in the same vineyard. They're harvested together, they're fermented together. Co-mingled fermentation. Same. It happens very, I'd say organically, I don't mean necessarily certified, but it all happens kind of magically together in a vineyard. And on the other side of a street, they're growing strictly turga nacionale that's trained completely differently. But for some reason, the field blend here just works so much better. Dorro is easily the most impressive wine region I've ever been to, just in terms of the viticulture practices, the people there, the pedigree and the seriousness of the wines. And then you put on top of it, oh yeah, they also use these to make port. It's very, very diverse and just really interesting. It could be six podcasts easily. Back it up a sec. So the commingled planting and fermentation, is that standard for the region or is that just more in the wine we tasted? Pretty standard in the region. This wine we tasted, I can get into the details, but I think we can talk about oak aging, we can talk about amphora and a lot of things in Portugal. In Dorro specifically, what you really want to know about production is they use the Lagar method for grape crushing, and that's the very old school foot stomping method. I was about to guess like fat lady bare feet thing. Yeah. Well, it's- That's legit a thing. That is absolutely- I thought that was only like Bugs Bunny cartoons. No, this is the real deal. I saw- Oh, I don't want to drink this now, it's gross. No, it's so delicious. He likes the beer that has the fungus growing. You can't handle foot line. Yeah, guys with bare naked feet, you can't handle it. So no, this Alegar Method, I asked a lot of questions about it because I found it fascinating. Most people, all I ever knew before seeing it, I didn't see it in practice, but I saw the facilities. All I ever knew was the I Love Lucy video, and it's absolutely nothing like that. From all accounts, I heard this is a really somber, very serious practice, and it's generations of people that have been trained to do this properly. It's like four or five guys, arms linked across, and there's no music, there's no talking, there's no nothing. It's like a library in there, and they know just the right speed, just the right pressure. I can't believe they're not jamming to Bruno Mars or something in there, just dancing around. There's no dance party. There's a hit of wine. Barb left, the mail went, Oh, guys, she's gone. All right, turn on the Bruno Mars. Put Coolio on. No, I mean, that's what I would think too. Like this big grape stomping party, and it's celebratory in places in Napa, do it in other places all over the world. If, again, we're forced to make comparisons, I would compare the style and the seriousness of this wine, the power of it to Bordeaux, perhaps, or maybe good properties in Napa Valley. And then to that point, I'd ask the same question, how much do you think this would sell for? Knowing what I know now, but also assuming Portuguese wine is cheap. If you told me it was French. I'm gonna, if you told me it was French, I would guess it was like 50 bucks. But thinking it's Portuguese, knowing it's Portuguese, and assuming, thinking that most Portuguese stuff is a little more value for it, I would say it's $25. Cool, Craig, you agree? If you told me it was from California, I'd guess it at Merlot. And if you told me it was from France, I'd guess it at Ray Bank. And I would guess it in either case at about 40. And here, I gotta go with Pat, I think it's about $25. Roger, you think the same? Yeah, it sounds good. Yeah, no, this is $20 on the shelf. Super awesome value. And I love this, it's a little floral. There's dark fruit, a lot of that dark kind of cassis that you got from really quality keb a lot of the time, but there's so much more acidity. I get a lot of slate. The finish is wonderful. We just opened this maybe half an hour ago, but in another hour or two, this is really gonna be singing even more beautifully. This is their second wine. Their flagship wine from Symington is called Chyrseia and that's a single plot there in Bacha Corgo. And that one retails for maybe 80 bucks. And as far as quality Portuguese red wines go, it doesn't, in my experience, get much higher than that. I like when you find wines and we always joke about that I always say this about Madeira, but if it does lesser known wines, the people have to kind of do a little homework to find out about them. I think it's cool when you can get rewarded with that nice value then. Right, and I think all red wines from Portugal should be in that conversation. And it kind of opens up the question to what other regions in the world can you explore where you can get a great bottle of wine for 20 bucks? This is at the top of my list. Part of that is because it's nostalgic and charming for me right now. I was just there. But part of it is experience. I mean, for $20, what you get for California Cabernet isn't anywhere near this caliber. For the most part, 20 bucks from France, you're going to get maybe a second label Bordeaux. But maybe in Spain, you're going to get some good values. Some Greek wines are going to present value at this level. But for the most part, I think Portugal is really where it's at. Can't get enough of it. But wait, there's more. There's one last thing I wanted to share, and that is a white wine from Vinho Verde. They call it there. More commonly known here is Vinho Verde. Is that like a Portuguese pronunciation of Verde? Vinho Verde. Vinho Verde. Is that like Italians are just too damn lazy to throw one more? Well, isn't Verde- Yeah, you hear that, you lazy Italians? Verde is French for green, right? I believe so, but in the Portuguese like vernacular, this is not green, this is new. So it doesn't literally translate as green wine, it should translate as new wine or fresh wine, and this style is exactly why. This is what most people think of in terms of Portuguese table wines, probably one of the first things you tried, and there's a lot of plonk out there for five, six, seven dollars, and look, it's refreshing and it's tasty, it's a little fizzy, it's For the listeners that might know, can you define plonk? Do you remember that time that Garrett Oliver told us there was no American wine word for plonk? And we were like, yeah, it's plonk. Mediocrity. No, come on, it's just guzzling wine. Right? It's just like wine that you drink. It is what it is. You don't think about it. It's kind of boring, but it's fine. But it's fine. Yeah. And I wanted to show you guys a version of Vinho Verde that is a little bit higher quality and is more regionally specific and is driven by varietals. So here, these are Lorero Alvarino, which you've already heard of from Spain, and Arrinto, which is really the leader for white lines in all of Portugal. I think it's just as accessible. It's fruity, it's fresh, but it has a little more weight to it. And not as much sugar. The nose is beautiful. Reminds me of some of the Alsatian wines we tried. Nice. And Riesling's. That woody, herbalness is back for me. So this is peachy pear juice with a little bit of bubbles, but it's finer than the planque red avid. Yeah, just a tiny little spritz, right, like a fervous. I didn't notice that. Yeah, it's in there, it's frizzante. Just barely. Just barely, no? I'm not sure I'd call it frizzante technically. I think it's very high acidity. It comes across as a texture on the palate instead of bubbles on the palate. And if you pay attention when you pour it, you'll see a quick spritz of bubbles. Yeah, definitely a little spritz is the way I would put it, but you can taste how refreshing it is. Yeah, the fruitiness is there. I love the peachy, a little bit of pear skin, lemon, kind of candied lemon zest. If you like Pinot Grigio, you've got to try this. There's Sauvignon Blanc, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd say it's so much better than both of those things. Yeah, it's more interesting-er. The nose has guava note on it, for sure. A little tropical, yeah, I like it a lot. So this is Casa do Valle, 2018, Vinho Verde, and you can pick this up at Binny's for $8.99. Oh, really? Yeah, buddy. That's a bargain. Yeah, it's a nice bottle of wine. Yeah, and this is, you know, I mean, we talk a lot about seasonality with wine, whether it's white wine or rosé, but I think this is a year-round porch-pounder, for lack of a better term, but definitely high seasonality. Like, you could drink this on a boat all summer long. Porch-pounders. This, Natterdays. All right, putting a pin on it. So Barb, what you're saying is that if you're looking for something that will save you some money, and still offer like a fresh direction on wines that compete with some of the famous growing regions around the world, Portugal is a great place to go. Absolutely. And if you're looking for some easy wrecks, check out the description on this blog post. We have these that we tasted today, and we could easily recommend any of these. Or stop by your favorite Binny's. Your wine consultants are going to be geeked on this. Yeah, since I came home, I've led two classes of our consultants, and two shorter recaps of our wine managers. So everybody's amped up on Portugal right now, I hope. The value it presents. Give a special shout out to Wines of Portugal people, and Ana Gaspar. Hi, Ana. And I also want to encourage Jim and Rose, who are traveling there shortly. Have a great time. Bon voyage. If you need any tips, let me know. All right, that's all the inside jokes for now. Tell them to look for those muffins. I hope you get to go to Portugal someday. I hope I get to try a Portuguese muffin someday. I literally made my sister make them. And she's like, this is a pain in the ass. I never say that about stuff. And she's like, they didn't turn out. You even make bagels with lye. And Portuguese muffins is a pain in the ass. They're weird. You cook them like on a stove top. The last thing I want to say about Portuguese wines, I've touted, especially Red Blends and some of the white wines from the country. But what they do best really is fortified wines. And I got to taste some of their best offerings on the same trip. I think we'll cover that another time. And that includes the wonderful island of Madeira that Roger and I are so passionate about. We'll get to that another time. So underappreciated. We love it so much. It's fine. It's more than fine. It's woefully stereotyped and forgotten about. The barrels make good whiskey. Can't wait for that Barb. Yeah, we'll do that another time. Folks, that brings us to the Q&A portion of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, where we answer your question on the podcast for the $20 Binny's gift card. Email us at comments at binnys.com or hit us up on social media, at Binny's Bev on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Our question this week comes from Addison Ten Violin. Hey, Addison. What's up, Addison? Question is, how come white wine doesn't age as long as red? Wow, that's an interesting question. So firstly, I'd say sometimes they do. It can. It can. Best known ageable white wines are Chardonnay from Burgundy in France and Riesling from Germany. These are wines that can hold up for a couple decades or more if that's the style of wine that you're looking for. And for different reasons. For different reasons, for sure. But for the most part, white wine is not crafted the same as red wine, right? So it doesn't, it isn't built the same, doesn't have the same structure to make it age worthy. Most white wines and rosés are meant for immediate consumption. So as red wine ages, the more austere components such as tannins, combine with other things, fall out, give you sediment. And in the absence of those bigger flavors, some of the deeper nuances can come out, as well as oxidization where primary fruits oxidize and get more carmely and more brown over time, right? But the changes that happen in red wine as they age are getting rid of austerities and exposing more nuance. And that white wine usually isn't built that way, that you don't need those compounds to fall out of the wine. You're making the answer a lot more science-y and nerdy. No, no, I'm all for that, but what's the answer to this question? The two sentence answer to this question. White wine doesn't have the compounds that need to fall out, so it's really meant to be drank fresh. The base premise of aging wine is to get the tannins to soften. It's not made for it. It's not made for it in general. German Riesling again is an exception. You've got the sugar, you've got the acidity, it can last forever. French Chardonnay, a lot of people like the secondary and tertiary components to come out. They like the floral, more caramely, more earthy, more mushroomy. That's not necessarily for me, so I'd say if you're thinking about aging white wine, try a couple after a couple years and proceed with caution. Those tannins that we're looking to soften with age come from contact with the grape skins. With the grape skins. And we don't have that in white wine. Hey, you pulled the skins off. There you go, Addison. 20 bucks worth of gift card. Binny's gift card coming to you. Pick up some white wine and sit on it for 20 years and then write us back and see what you think. Everybody else can email your questions to commentsbinnys.com. Hit us up on social media, at Binny's Bev on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. By the way, everybody, if you like what you're listening to, leave a review or a rating on iTunes, Apple podcasts. Spread the word to your friends and let us know what you think. Hit us up at commentsbinnys.com. And I'm still talking. Pouring myself a glass of wine, pouring in some of this vino vert. So there you have it. Portuguese wines that aren't port. Who knew? There's more to Portugal than port. So until next week, thanks for listening. I'm Pat. I'm Barb. I'm Greg. I'm Roger. Keep tasting. High energy. Should we just put this on? Seriously. We just waited a half hour for you. We're not putting it off. For me? We think we're just sitting in here because we... Do it. That's a real dead answer. We're not putting it off, Barb. We were waiting in here. What'd you think I was doing in here? We're going to have some goddamn fun, okay? It's going to be fun.