Text Ilkka Sirén

I like wine. I like food. I like hanging out with good people. I especially like all those things together. Whenever possible I try to surround myself with people I enjoy spending time with, most of whom share my enthusiasm towards all things tasty. I have never had a problem of enjoying a glass or two just by myself but wine, like food, is a thing that really is best when shared. I guess that’s one of the many reasons I love Portugal. It doesn’t take much to convince a Portuguese person to enjoy a glass of wine with you, to share some food, to share a short moment in this erratic life of ours. As corny as it may sound, life is a compilation of those short moments. So, in the spirit of all this I invited some friends over to taste a couple of wines from the Dão region.

Casa da Passarella is an estate that has one of those “neglegted winery saved by a millionaire” – kind of a story. The estate dates back to 1892 and it was a very ambitious project by a guy called Amand d’Oliveira. They planted 200 hectares of vineyards which I imagine was quite a task back in the day. Some of those vineyards still exist. But like with so many other estates, it all ended in ruins. That was until 2007 when the estate was acquired by Ricardo Cabral. A few years and a few million euros after, bada-bing-bada-boom, Casa da Passarella is now starting to make waves again.

Anyways, my friends came over and I popped open a bottle of Casa da Passarella O Oenólogo Encruzado 2012. The wine was timid at first but after a while it started to open up. Most of the ecruzados I see here in Finland are very easy going and usually quite ripe showing tons of tropical fruits. They can be quite nice but it’s not usually the style I go for. This wine on the other hand was less fruit-forward and more restrained showing nice citrus and green herb aromas with a long mouthwatering finish. I made a bit of challenge for the wine pairing it with some spicy chistorra sausage. It was downright sinful, and by sinful I mean sinfully delicious. The slight viscosity of the encruzado worked well with the spiciness and the acidity cut the fatness of the sausage making it a very tasty combination.

Then it was time for some red. We tried the O Oenólogo Vinhas Velhas 2010 tinto, a wine made from old vineyards with a mix of local grape varieties like Baga, Alvarelhão, Tinta Pinheira, Jaen, Tinta Carvalha etc. The nose was spicy with nice red fruit. The thing I like about these Dão wines that come closer to the Serra da Estrela mountain is that they tend to be quite fresh. It’s definitely a cooler wine region which you can taste in the wines. This wine had a nice structure, full bodied and balanced. I was expecting something more “rustic” but instead it turned out to be quite polished. Full-bodied, smooth tannins, persistant aftertaste. Very drinkable already but in 5 to 10 years it could develop into a real panty dropper.

So, there we were. Drinking, eating, laughing while watching the sun go down in Helsinki. It only took some wine, a bit of food and a couple of friends to make me, for that short moment, truly happy.

Contacts
Casa da Passarella
Rua Santo Amaro, 3, Passarela
6290-093 Lagarinhos
Phone: 00 351 238 486 312
Email: info@casadapassarella.pt
Site: www.casadapassarella.pt