Yet another trip to the Dão, this time to Quinta da Alameda near Nelas - a scarce 2000 meters away from the famous Casa de Santar. The owner, my friend Luís Abrantes, is also the owner of the forward looking furniture company Movech (‘everyone asks me if this was inaugurated last year, but it’s looked the same way for fifteen years’, he told us) and it was his lifelong passion for the wines of the Dão and Bairrada that led him to join this other business venture where small fortunes are known to be made out of large ones.
After a period of ups and downs, in which he admits he didn’t have as much passion for the project as he should have, he considers 2021 to be a ‘year zero’ for the estate. The new winemaker is none other than Anselmo Mendes, famous for his work in the Vinhos Verdes and with the Alvarinho grape in particular. He was tasked by Luis to craft wines of freshness and elegance, and the result is just as splendid as I expected. After a tour of Quinta da Alameda for those who were first timers, we were served an excellent, codfish based meal by chef Diogo Rocha (of the neighboring Michelin star Casa de Lemos restaurant) which we paired with two of ther reds about to hit the market. These are not their ‘Quinta’ (single estate) wines - those, red and white, are yet to be released - but rather blends of grapes from Alameda and Anselmo’s other Dão propriety, Quinta de Silvares, which together add up to around 22 ha of mostly granite soils, as is typical of the region.
Those looking for fresh, elegant, affordable old world reds from the 2018 vintage should probably look no further than this Alameda de Santar, a blend of the Dão’s ‘big four’ (Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Alfrocheiro, Jaen). Translucid in color, it has beautifully fresh aromas of cherries and raspberries, with pleasant hints of earth and vegetable. The fruit is ‘feminine’ yet juicy and seductive - at no point is this astringent, hard or underripe. Zero oak. Smashing value for 8,50€, at which point, for Portuguese standards, it sits above the entry level price point while remaining affordable.
Their 2017 Parcelas red (specific parcels of land from both estate) was less to my liking, given the hotter vintage throughout Portugal (opposite of what went on in France, from what I understand). A Touriga Nacional varietal wine - by itself a risk, given the grape’s natural flamboyance - it is just slightly too oaky and ripe for my taste, although the character of Dão Touriga (violets mixed with fruit I can only describe as ‘bubblegum pretty’) is not completely effaced. It probably doesn’t help that this came right after such a beautifully understated wine. Both, however, were 13% ABV, which serves to illustrate many people’s point that ABV is a relatively poor indicator of a wine’s profile.
We ended our tasting with a sample of what will be the 2020 red Quinta da Alameda, sourced mostly from old vines. Still painfully young, it already shows extraordinary density and richness without weight. Smashing stuff in the making.
However, and given Anselmo’s involvement, it’s their Quinta da Alameda white I’m looking forward to the most. He explained to us over lunch how they blended Encruzado with Arinto (one of the most acidic of the Portuguese white varieties) with a result that ought to be ‘mouthwatering’. Slowly, the Dão seems to be transforming into what it should always have been - Portugal’s Burgundy, instead of an imitator of Douro and Alentejo wines.
![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}