WTN: Bairrada, Filipa Pato

[b]2005 3B Brut Filipa Pato 12,5%
Baga, bical, Afrocheiro

Made by champenoise , has a beautiful salmon color and thin continuous sparkling.
Aromas of apple latex a little bit of yeast and a delicate oxidative nose. Full body very pleasant acidity and a light bitter, I liked.

2008 Ensaios Baga Filipa Pato 13,5[/b]
Touriga Nacional 40%, Jaen 40% e Baga 20%

Violet light color. A evident trutifruitness, young, floral and green with a base note of red fruit.
Medium light body, with alcohol no integrate, sounds plausibly, but i didn't find pleasure.

2006 Lokal silex Filipa Pato 13,5%
Touriga Nacional

A deep violet color, tint the glass... Strong's aromas of wild fruit, dry apricot, lots of violet, white pepper and a pleasant thyme.
Medium full body, shows fruit, little grain tannins and a balance acidity, good! a back end flavor of pinus toast. Nice wine, with a start of complexity, quite new world. Better than 2005...

2005 Lokal Calcario Filipa Pato 14,0%
Baga

Deep red fruit, clean color. Vary smoky with dark fruits, a lot of rust/blood meet. In the mouth has a vary nice valved tannins, full body and a cooked back end with balance alcohol.
I don't no exactly if if love it... It's a strange mix of old X new world. If Baga is like Nebiollo and accepts high alcohol, this could be more natural, less factory.
This is a typical result of a “green pruning” to get more concentration in the wine so... It's a very interesting wine, but need time, in cellar and in the winery...

2008 FLP 12%
Sercialinho, Cercial and Maria Gomes.

Light yellow color, a strong flavor of greed apple artificial candy... aghhh, peers, peaches and pine apple with base sound of spices... In the mouth is total off balance, a strong sweet with laking acidity... no good.
This wine is a “ice wine” pre-fab really... made by a crio-extration process... its quite difficult do describe this in english to me... but in general they frozen the juice in a centrifuge to remove the water and concentrate the flavor, but sounds basic that the acidity can't be part of this party! was the opposite from a biodinamic natural wine! I feel like a clone drinking some fuel... rsrs!
In general this king of wine taste always brings me a lot of thing to think about, and manly have fun!!!

Filipa is the daughter of Luis Pato I believe. Do not think she has much of a track record and your notes prove it Marcelo. Think I will stick with dad!!

She seems to be competent as a winemaker, just not sure from what I've tasted what her intentions are, to be Bairrada or to be international. But I'm curious and want to find out more.

A mixture of old world and new world approaches may not be such a bad thing when the grape in question is Baga: the traditional expressions are not quite for everyone. At least not in underripe years or without sufficient age. Alas, on my recent pass through Bairrada I was not able to taste anything from Filipa Pato. The Lokal Baga sounds like it might be better in about 10 years. And, while I can't comment on the FLP, freezer-made stickies can be quite good and the process doesn't need to introduce anything artificial into the wine.

For traditional Bairrada two names to seek out are Quinta das Bageiras and Casa de Saima. I spent an wonderful afternoon at Bageiras and just about everything they make is at least interesting, if not great. Very time and labor intensive stuff: reds are mostly Baga (they have stuck in some Touriga Nacional recently), fermented in lagares, with even the modestly priced reserva seeing 2 years in neutral oak and no filtering. Mind you I got to taste mostly ripe vintages (2003, 2005, 2007), but the barrel regimen seems to take the harsh edge off Baga. And don't miss the sparkling wines, made by traditional bottle fermentation with between 2 and 5 years before disgorgement, which are a major part of their production. The Baga espumante found in Bairrada is the perfect thing to drink with the locally famous leitao (roast suckling pig).

For traditional Bairrada two names to seek out are Quinta das Bageiras and Casa de Saima. I spent an wonderful afternoon at Bageiras and just about everything they make is at least interesting, if not great. Very time and labor intensive stuff: reds are mostly Baga (they have stuck in some Touriga Nacional recently), fermented in lagares, with even the modestly priced reserva seeing 2 years in neutral oak and no filtering. Mind you I got to taste mostly ripe vintages (2003, 2005, 2007), but the barrel regimen seems to take the harsh edge off Baga. And don't miss the sparkling wines, made by traditional bottle fermentation with between 2 and 5 years before disgorgement, which are a major part of their production. The Baga espumante found in Bairrada is the perfect thing to drink with the locally famous leitao (roast suckling pig).

Thanks for the tip. Sooner por later I am going to visit Luis Pato, and it would be nice to see some other places as well. Did you ever get a achance to write a trip report?

A mixture of old world and new world approaches may not be such a bad thing when the grape in question is Baga: the traditional expressions are not quite for everyone. At least not in underripe years or without sufficient age. Alas, on my recent pass through Bairrada I was not able to taste anything from Filipa Pato. The Lokal Baga sounds like it might be better in about 10 years. And, while I can't comment on the FLP, freezer-made stickies can be quite good and the process doesn't need to introduce anything artificial into the wine.

I'm not doubting that they don't introduce artificial elements... Is just a unbalance wine, and this taste artificial... the process is Chemical ,totally wonderfull from technologyy point view, but I just can't find pleasure in the taste... Sounds "wine as a desert", not a "desert wine". I'm a big fan from Luis Pato, and this is the first wine that didn't catch me.

And thanks a lot for the tips, next year i will spend some time in Europe and for sure i´will try it!

Oswaldo: No, I haven't got around to writing up anything about my Portugal trip. I didn't take any notes, so what I might come up with could be dicey. It certainly won't rival your excellent report from Piedmont, but I will try to kick in some observations about my exploits from time to time.