If you like wines that are overflowing with citrus, lemon, lime, green apple, peach, honey, stone fruit, pineapple, straw, grass, oak, butter and caramel, then you are in for a treat.
The wines from Portugal’s DO Vinho Verde are value packed, big on flavor and continue to impress the palate.
During this long pandemic lockdown, wine has been a key ingredient in many of our survival tactics. Eight months ago most of us would hoard whatever wines were available. But, as time has passed, our selections have been more realistic in nature. With online ordering available in most states, we can purchase what our palate desires.
I’m originally from New Orleans where seafood is king. Since moving away years ago, my food palate hasn’t changed. Seafood is still the focus of home cooked meals, as well as wines that compliment the seafood related entree or appetizers
I have found two wines from Portugal that should be considered for your next seafood meal. The wines are extremely opposite from each other. One is lighter and fresher, perfect for all seafood, while the other is a bit complex and alluring.
Ameal Louretro 2019 is a complex wine whose bouquet is dominated by lemon zest and quince. Its quite alluring when your palate explodes with a powerful dose of minerality, followed by a glimmer of acidity with flavors of lemon, green apple, slate, unripe pear and day old cantaloupe. The wine is very fresh, grassy and floral with a saline finish. It is a truly premium level Vinho Verde at a reasonable price.
Opposite on the scale of complexity is the Esporao Bico Amarelo 2019. This lovely wine is the authentic Vinho Verde that wine lovers love. Its nose is pure pineapple with hints of passion fruit, lemon and green apple. On the palate, the wine is dry, overly fresh with an enticing acidity, containing citrus and blossom with a long, lingering finish.
Both wines are readily available and worth seeking out. Their ‘giveaway prices’ still shock me.
I made Vongole, linguine with clam sauce as the entree for both wines and cooked the dish using the Bico Amarelo wine as one of the ingredients.
VONGOLE
Ingredients: 5 cloves of peeled garlic; 4 tablespoons of olive oil; dash of red pepper flakes; three dozen Manila clams; 1 cup of Vinho Verde; 3/4 pound of linguine; lemon zest; 2 tablespoons of lemon juice; fresh parsley; 1 jar of clam juice; salt and pepper.
Process: Cook the slivered garlic in olive oil for a minute, then add red pepper flakes, wine, clam juice and clams. Cover the pot and cook on medium for seven minutes. Strain, save the broth and set the clams to cool. Boil the linguine, take the clams out of the shells, put the broth in a saucepan and add the lemon juice, zest, salt and pepper and the clams. Add the linguine, toss in the parsley and serve with the wines from Vinho Verde.
Philip S. Kampe
Philip.kampe@thewinehub.com
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