Informative write-up on wines from Alentejo.

Sarah has obviously enjoyed her time in the region. Long write-up but full of interest.

http://www.thewinedetective.co.uk/regio ... ober-2009/

Thanks Bob. Hope to go here someday. NYT has a very nice photo slideshow on the area that came out this (or last) week.

The main problem right now is the accessibility of wines from Portugal. I can well believe comments here that there is not much choice on some local shelves. I think this is going to change but will, no doubt, take sometime.
Enthusiasts here who do have some choice have a head start as I think demand for wines from Portugal is going to increase.
Prices are spread across the board, entry level wines here start at around $15. There is the usual discussion about "traditional" and "modern" style wine-making as elsewhere in the wine world. Information is out there through blogs and websites... and of course forums such as this one.
I add another link, this time from Jamie Goode who has a good understanding of all things Portugal....>

http://www.wineanorak.com/alentejo/alen ... uction.htm

Bob - thanks for posting this. Not only is the Alentejo article interesting, there are a number of interesting reports on her site, from Portugal and elsewhere.

Regarding the availability of Portuguese wines: I'm lucky to live near one of the largest concentrations of Portuguese in the US, Newark's Ironbound, so I have access to many wines not well distributed elsewhere. Still, if you go to an Ironbound restauarant and look around you will see much Alentejo wine being consumed, mostly in the form of Monte Vehlo (Esparao) or EA (Cartuxa). If you order by the glass is almost hard to get away from this stuff (it is pretty good for cheap wine, IMO) unless you want to go to the drink favored by the old guys: a huge glass of something from a 5 L jug (e.g. chilled red from Livingstone Cellars (CA) at one place I frequent).

The Wine Detective seems to focus on mostly the high end produers, or the wines at the top of a large producers (e.g. Esparao) lineup, and, looking over her site, the same names keep popping up in her writing: Niepoort, Mouchao, Grous, Vale do Meao, etc. Good wines, no doubt (although a lot of these producers like their new oak), but it is going to be rare for me to be purchasing a $50+ bottle of Alentejo wine. You wouldn't know it from reading her site, but producers like Paulo Laureano and Quinta do Mouro make some very nice wines which are quite reasonably priced (Singularis and Vinha do Mouro, respectively, are in the $10-$15 range).

Joe, just got home from the Grill where we had a very busy night what with the rodeo and other downtown events.
This afternoon, I helped out with the Portugal event at DeVines where there was a very good selection of wines. 8 reps and over 60 wines including some ports. All proceeds ($15 per head) went to the womens shelter here in Edmonton.
Many of the wines were in the $20 to $35 price range and I will give my impressions here probably on monday. Did I post the list of wines to be tasted?