To London for our importer's (Richards Walford) annual portfolio tasting. We have our full range of wines on show for the first time: Pedra Basta 2009 alongside Duas Pedras 2010 and Pedra e Alma 2009. All the wine are showing really well, especially the 2009s. This is our best vintage todate and Pedra e Alma, despite being relatively closed and sullen, is well received by all those who tasted it. It has huge potential for the future I think.  There seemed to be relatively few people at the tasting this year - there certainly wasn't the lunchtime crush of previous years - which I hope is not a sign of the times. Having said that all those who showed an interest in our wines were serious buyers or communicators.

Today I made history by conducting the first ever Portuguese tasting at the Traveller's Club in Pall Mall. The dinner was a sell out, attended by ambassadors, ex ambassadors and other luminaries. I put our wines against wines from the Douro and fortunately they all showed well against each other and I think that the stylistic differences between the two regions were very evident for all to see. We finished with Graham 1977, a vintage that I have been lukewarm about in the past but this wine is drinking beautifully at the moment. 

permalink

Something has happened to methat has never happend before: I have completely lost my sense of taste and smell. I caught a very nasty bug (almost certainly from one of the children) towards the middle last month and by Christmas Day, alongside all the symptoms of a heavy cold, I couldn’t taste a thing. The only way that I could distinguish turkey from potato by its texture! It meant that I couldn’t really enjoy the wines that I had put aside for Christmas: Henriot 1996 and Chateau Cos d’Estournel 1990, both of which I know to be rather good. Now we are well into the New Year and I still can’t smell anything: the house might be burning down and I wouldn’t know it! I can just about taste acidity, salt and sweetness but none of the subtleties have come back as yet. It is beginning to worry me, especially as I am well into a course of anti-biotics to rid myself of the infection and I need to be able to smell and taste wines again soon!  Anyway 2012 is the year when we have our full range of wines up and running: Pedra Basta 2009, Duas Pedras 2010 and our latest wine, Pedra e Alma 2009. This will be launched in the UK at the Richards Walford Portfolio Tasting in London on 25^th January. I hope to be able to taste again by then!         

permalink