Featured Wine

     People often seem abashed when they admit they haven't heard of a certain grape varietal before.  Don't feel bad...we're still learning about grapes we've never heard of on a frequent basis.  With over 200 indigenous varietals in Portugal alone, we weren't surprised to learn a new one last week.  Meet "Maria Gomes", a varietal not even mentioned in Karen MacNeil's go-to wine reference book, THE WINE BIBLE.  And Ms. Gomez just happens to make up the majority of this brut bubbly that has made our week of tasting dozens and dozens of wines very, very, very worth it.

     This varietal is more commonly known as Fernao Pires (not that you should know that either), but is called "Maria Gomez" only in the region of Bairrada where we find the Pato Family, one of the most esteemed winemaking families in the region who have had a big role in putting Portugal on the map for products other than Port and Madeira.

     In 1999, Luis Pato (pictured above) backed out of the Bairrada DOC to bottle his wines under the Vinho Regional Beiras appellation.  When doing this, winemakers usually take a hit as their wines don't bear that easily identifiable appellation on the label which helps shoppers have an idea what they're buying.  But it freed them up to experiment in a more liberal winemaking environment, opting not to create new-world style fruit-bombs, but subtle experimentation with local and long-forgotten varietals. 

      The Maria Gomes Bruto is perfumy, tropical, but dry, with a bit of a spice on the finish.  The short way to say that is....it's complex.  Like vinho verde?  Like gruner veltliner?  Then you're gonna love this bottle.  Sheesh...I'm starting to sound like this guy.