Get your Independence Day Weekend off to a great by starting by joining your fellow PDX Wine and Food Lovers at Porto Terra Tuscan Grill & Bar on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at 6pm for a memorable night of culinary and vinous indulgence! $40 per person (includes all the wines).
Porto Terra Tuscan Grill & Bar
830 SW 6th Ave
Portland, OR 97204
Tel: 917-251-6168
Check out the amazing wines we'll be having:
1. 2012 Gramercy Cellars Syrah Lagniappe Columbia Valley Washington State (retail cost $57.99)
A wine that blew me away, the 2012 Syrah Lagniappe is blockbuster stuff that needs to be tasted to be believed. Medium to full-bodied, tight, concentrated and focused, it offers thrilling Syrah character with notions of pepper, mineral, earth and pure blackberry styled fruit. Given the purity of fruit and high quality tannin, it should be relatively accessible on release, yet benefit from 2-3 years of cellaring and have two decades or so of longevity. Rated 97 The Wine Advocate
2. 2012 Caymus Vineyards "40th Anniversary" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon California (retail cost: $79.99)
I am old enough to remember Chuck Wagner and his father, who I first met at Caymus in the late seventies. This is clearly one of Napa Valley’s iconic wineries, as well as one that, amazingly, never went through a bad patch. Obviously, no matter which generation is in the driver’s seat (or should I say tractor’s seat), Caymus Vineyard knows how to deliver flavor and deliciousness. They appear to be immune to some of winedom’s less than intelligent trends and fads that we see from time to time, and the result is a spectacular 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon 40th Anniversary offering. Its dense purple/black color is followed by copious quantities of crème de cassis and blackberry fruit, silky tannins, a voluptuous texture and stunning purity as well as length. This full-bodied effort is a fabulous example of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon as well as a tribute to this amazing family. It is so good now, why wait? However, I’m sure that like most vintages of Caymus, it will last for 20-25 years. Amazing! Rated 96 The Wine Advocate
3. 2004 La Rioja Alta "904" Gran Reserva Rioja, Spain (retail cost: $49.99)
This 2004, from a superb vintage shows a beautiful light red color with a brick rim and a superb nose redolent of balsamic woods, spices, leather, well-hung meat, incense and truffles. The light to medium-bodied palate shows fully resolved tannins, great acidity and pure, pungent flavors that linger in the mouth forever and that can only be Rioja. This is a wine to smell over and over again. It might sound like an exaggeration, but this wine is still too young and you should wait a little bit and drink the superb 2001 vintage which should still be available on the market while this one matures in bottle. At this quality level the price is superb especially considering that the wine is being released 10 years after the vintage. Drink 2016-2024. Rated 96 The Wine Advocate
4. 2010 Shafer Napa Valley Merlot California (retail cost: $48.99)
Starting with the Merlots, the 2010 Merlot (a blend of 84% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Malbec) is sensational. Its dense purple color is accompanied by gorgeous aromas of black fruits and chocolate, a sweetness to the tannin and length that almost makes a mockery of Merlots produced elsewhere in Napa, a voluminous, chewy texture and great elegance and purity. Shafer Vineyards appears to have the Midas touch with just about any fruit they receive. The killer 2010 Merlot may be the finest Merlot they have produced in 20-25 years. It should drink well for 10-15 years. Rated 94 The Wine Advocate
5. 2012 Mas d'en Compte "Black Slate - Porrera" Priorat Spain (retail cost: $19.99)
From one of Priorat’s coolest micro-climates, this 2012 Black Slate is composed of 60% old vine Grenache (60+ years) and 40% old Carignan (80 years), and aged 12 months in concrete tanks, old wood foudres, and two-year-old barrels. It reveals lots of licorice, crushed wet rock, sweet blueberry and black raspberry fruit characteristics along with a full-bodied, moderately tannic mouthfeel. The tannins are sweet and well-integrated, and the wine is drinking beautifully already. For a relatively expensive Spanish appellation, this is an outright steal! Consume it over the next 3-6 years. Rated 93 The Wine Advocate
6. 2006 Napa Angel by Montes Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Chile (retail cost $44)
From Chilean winemaker Aurelio Montes comes this Cab of considerable depth and power. It shows well-developed blackberry and cassis flavors. The tannins are significant. Rated 92 Wine Enthusiast Cellar Selection.
"By Montes. Deep, impressively extracted and brimming with lots of keenly defined and carefully oaked Cabernet fruit, this nicely crafted effort is at once both very rich and shows a fine sense of proportion and polish that wins it high marks. It has lots to offer the impatient drinker, but its greatest strength lies in structure and balance, and it promises to age famously for five years and more in the cellar." Rated 90 Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine
Regarding food, you can order off the menu and pay only for the food you order. http://www.portoterra.com/
To RSVP for this meetup, send us an email (WineEducator@vindevin.com) and we can send you a PayPal link. PayPal accepts Visa, Mastercard, etc. Limited to 10 people...Hope you can make it!!!