Portuguese wines on the rise

 The first time I went to Lisbon someone offered me a white Port and I thought they were kidding. They absolutely weren't and I loved it. It's slightly sweet and beautiful as an aperitif and even better with tonic.

Looking down the Duoro is intoxicating.

That experience was just the beginning of a love story with Portuguese wine and food (and cheese!). I celebrated many birthdays at New York's first serious Portuguese restaurant Pão and drank cases of Tinto da Ânfora, made by one of my favorite winemakers Vasco Garcia of Bacalhôa. I put another great Portuguese red, the Sogrape 1990 Reserva Douro Red, in a lineup of value wines in Wine Enthusiast in 1996, years before the wine biz was really buzzing about table wines from Portugal.

So I thrilled to see these great wines popping up on lists in our town. Great Peruvian restaurant Mochica offers both a Casa de Cadaval Trincadeira for $36 and a Quinta da Carolina from the Douro for $80. I also loved Esporão's white blend of indigenous Portuguese grapes from the Alentejo, priced at $12 a glass, at Bin 38 in the Marina. Owner Don Davis says he offers it an alternative to Chardonnay drinkers. In my mind it's much more interesting than any Chardonnay I have had recently.

At Gitane, the new Mediterranean-inspired place on Claude Lane, wine director Sean Diggins offers both a Portuguese white and red section! He has a few vinho verdes and a white from beloved winemaker Luis Pato from the Beiras, inland in north central Portugal. He also offers reds from the Douro, Alentejo and Ribatejo among others. Five of the Portuguese wines are available by the glass and carafe, priced $8 to $12 by the glass, so there's no reason not to explore.

This country is really exploding with great value wines, weather they are $10 vinho verdes or $30 wines from the Douro that taste like they cost three times as much. So keep your eyes open and don't be put off by those hard to pronounce grape varieties. One of my other favorites is Animus, which is Latin for soul, and is a red blend from the Douro imported by Touchstone Imports.

Recession special: the Valdubón 2005 Ribera del Duero from Spain has bright fruit, balanced acidity and a little dust and dirt on the palate. It's a great food wine a solid finish that costs approximately $18 a bottle.

What I am reading: Wine and War by Don and Petie Kladstrup is historical and heartbreaking look at what happened to the great vineyards and cellars of Europe during the Second World War. It follows several of France's great winemaking families through personal and professional loss and reveals some of the astounding steps they took to protect their family business.

Cheers,

Liza the Wine Chick