Fabulous Fridays: The New World of Douro Wines

I recently bought a lovely bottle of Douro wine. I selected this because Michael and I really enjoy these red wines. Also, I recently read a review of Douro wines in The New York Times. We discovered Douro wines when we were in Portugal in 2007. Ever since our trip, these wines are pretty much a staple in our home. It's a nice, easy wine. We discovered our friend Douro by way of default. Naturally, or naively as it turned out, we thought we would be drinking Port wine all week. But when we stopped for a glass of Port, we really hated it. As an alternative, someone suggested Douro. Lucky for us, it was amazing.

For our most recent tasting, we tried a mighty red bottle of Evel Grande Reserve 2005. It was really well-balanced and elegant. It had plenty of plum and spicy flavors and did go down rather smoothly.

Douro wines from Portugal are a staple at our house.

A warning when going out to eat or drink in Portugal. It is customary for your waiter to immediately (and by this I mean as you're sitting down) put on your table small plates of bread, cheese, meats, olives and butter. FABULOUS!!! But when the bill came, each small plate was listed. The price for this little pre-appetizer came out to about 30 euros, so could be upwards to $45. Michael and I called this a “covert operation”. Enough said.

Douro wines come from the rugged Douro valley, in northern Portugal, known for its very hot and desert-dry conditions in the summer and cold and wet in the winter. The Douro River originates in Spain and flows west until it reached the ocean in Porto. You can purchase Douro wine from Spain as well, which is also very nice.

We bought four bottles on our trip to smuggle home with us (forgetting the aviation laws that no liquids be allowed) but this didn’t matter. Our local wine shop has lots to choice from and they are pretty much inexpensive.

According to Food and Wine magazine, the rise in popularity of this wine is due to changes in the 1980s to Portuguese wine laws, which forbade bottling wine in the Douro region and an partly due to an influx of young, ambitious, talented winemakers. As a result, wine stores in my area are clearing their shelves for more Douro wine.

Drinking this wine really has me in the mood for an return trip to Europe.