WTN: QPR Lives! Alandra Portuguese by Herdade do Esporao

There is still QPR out there in wine land. And Portugal remains a great place to look for it.

You won't know most of the varieties but you don't drink varieties: you drink wine!

Alandra wines, red and white, are not blockbusters but they are tasty everyday wines. Both in bottle and BiB 3 Liter (and what a bargain those are at $20 or less!), good sound wine for your daily delectation

Alandra Branco (white) is a light, bright, citrusy fresh white, created from a blend of Antao Vaz, Perrum, and Arinto grapes. So you don’t know the grapes? Get over it: the locals have been drinking the wine from these varieties for hundreds of years. It’s table wine, made for everyday drinking at ridiculously affordable prices. Try $7 for a bottle and around $20 for a 3-liter bag-in-a-box.

Alandra Tinto (red) is just as much a hot deal. Also a blend of obscure-outside-of-the-Iberian-Peninsula grapes---Moreto, Castelao, and Trincadeiro, if you must know--- it is light-bodied but tasty with mingled berries and just a whisper of licorice-spice Again, available in 750ml bottle and 3-Liter bag-in-box,

Great..some higher end wines from Esporao are somewhere in the cellar .

Whenever we get Piri-Piri chicken from Nando's (a South African chain serving Portuguese spicy grilled chicken by way of Mozambique), we almost always get a glass of the Alandra Tinto to accompany it. Nothing earth shattering, but a really nice quaff that always hits the spot for all of about $6.

The piri-piri chicken sounds good, Bruce. I can see how it would go well with the Alandra Tinto. Like you said, nothing earth-shattering but tasty. Great description.

When I lived down in Sonoma there was this nifty little Portuguese restaurant...piri-piri, caldo verde, Mozambique prawns Goan curry, etc. Great food. And they did their own bread, the kind momma used to make...you know, the little loaf/rools, just a touch greasy, chewy and nutty. Damn things were habit-forming. They eventually had to sell them in go-lacks out of the restaurant.

I saw a bottle of Alandra in a wine shop tonight priced $4.99 and thought 'why not just splurge the extra $3 for a bottle of Monte Velho?' I guess I'm spoiled by choice in cheap Portuguese wines living next door to Newark (which has maybe the largest Portuguese neighborhood in the US). To be honest, I'm always looking for restaurants there who have a BTG pour that is not from the Alentejo (and make sure you ask for Portuguese wine: a lot of the locals are drinking their $2 mugs of Carlo Rossi). There is a good chance you will be given a glass of Monte Velho (Esporao) or EA (Cartuxa aka Foundation Eugénio de Almeida) with occasionally Paulo Laureano Classico. All of these are pretty nice wines for the $8/bottle price, but this region strikes me as the most 'new world' of all Portuguese wine regions - hot, dry and flatter than most, think Australia. Of the three, I usually prefer EA, which is usually pretty balsy and not very polished.

As was mentioned in your other Esporao TN, the winemaker has Aussie roots, and admits that the large volume bottlings like Monte Velho get tricks like micro-oxygenation and wood chips, so these are not exactly geek wines, but it is done quite well. Lately, I've been able to find places that have more interesting wines for around the same price ($4-$5/glass is typical, BTW): Pedra Cancella Dao (branco or tinto) or Santa Velha tinto (grown up in the rugged Tras-os-Montes, NE Portugal), being examples. But like I said, these probably don't get a lot of distribution outside places like Newark (interestingly, the Portuguese wines available across the river in NYC are often quite a different lot - meant to appeal to wine geeks more than daily drinkers).

"Daily drinkers of Newark"..sounds like a fun crowd Joe!

"Daily drinkers of Newark"..sounds like a fun crowd Joe!

There are places where you are almost guaranteed to see certain guys at the bar. Lots of discussion in Portuguese, RTP news or futbol on the TV. Nice thing about these places is you can sit there for awhile nursing just a sparkling water or espresso and you will not be shooed. Besides Carlo Rossi, you see some other interesting drinks, e.g. half red wine, half beer (popular in summer).

I guess I'm spoiled by choice in cheap Portuguese wines living next door to Newark (which has maybe the largest Portuguese neighborhood in the US).

Glad to know there are benefits to living next door to Newark. I love Portuguese food and wine, in part because that's where my wife and I honeymooned (back in the '80s, when you could get a wonderful meal of grilled sardines and a glass of great wine for all of $3). However, here in the DC area, the options for Portuguese restaurants and wines (beyond big producers like Esporao) are few and far between.

Joe: Sounds like you've got a Portuguese wine 'haven' there. Good for you.

Yep, the Monte Velho is next up on the list. And I agree, it's easy to justify passing up the Alandra for the Monte Velho just on terms of price---for just a little more you can step up. Still, the bag-in-box of the Alandra is just a damn near unbeatable bargain.

As to the style...it's pretty obvious there's an Australian-Portuguese thing going on and Esporao is reaching to fill all the niches. But to me, it's still the basic Portuguese only slightly glazed over with New World tricks. And you know what? For everyday drinking wine, that's a compromise I can live with.

Beyond that, I wish we had access to the good Portuguesers you talk about. We don't But it is getting better. Slowly.