Latest Videos - Dancing Spoon

[E] Quinta do Crasto #1 with Tomas Roquette

2009-12-21T15:27:28.509Z

http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm --- PART 1 of Quinta do Crasto interviews. We begin with Tomas Roquette one of the owners. Tomas is the fourth generation at Quinta do Crasto. Crasto produces port wine since more than one hundred years and since 1994 also table wine with the same grape varieties as for port - more than a hundred different grape varieties.

Why did Quinta do Crasto start production table wines? Tomas explains the reasons. They wanted to show the world what is the potential of Douro, so they started to make table wines.

What is the type or the style of wines that they make at Quinta do Crasto. - wines that make people happy when they drink their wines.

About serving temperature: it is important not to serve the wines too warm. Chambré is not a good idea, especially if you are talking about wines with higher alcohol contents. They wines should be served at 16 to 18 degrees Celsius.

So what wines do they make at Quinta do Crasto? A port wine of course, but several table wines: Flor de Crasto, Crasto DOC (red and white), Reserva, Touriga Nacional (sometimes), Tinta Roriz, Vinha Maria Teresa, Vinha da Ponte, Xisto (Roquette & Cazes). And in 2010 there will be a new top wine coming on the market from the Douro Superior

This interview was made at the European Wine Bloggers Conference #EWBC 2009 in Lisbon: http://winebloggersconference.org/europe/

More on Quinta do Crasto: http://www.quintadocrasto.pt/uk/intro.htm

Music: Kaleidoscope, Sol e dad, Http://www.jamendo.com

By BKWine, http://www.bkwine.com. Interviewer: Per Karlsson, BKWine

See all our wine videos on our BKWine TV channel: http://www.youtube.com/bkwine

[E] Wines from Portugal #2 with Charles Metcalfe

2009-12-20T10:39:47.436Z

http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm --- PART 2 of the interview with Charles Metcalfe, who can be called the guru on Portuguese wines: on the excellent wine and food in Portugal today.

Is Portugal perhaps a New World wine country (with all the new technology and new knowledge)? Charles says perhaps, but perhaps not. It is maybe more a question of rediscovery of the old world. Portugal has also benefited enormously benefited from infrastructure investments financed by the European community.

What about the prospects for the Portuguese to market and sell their wines with these local and unknown grape varieties on the international market? Are Portuguese grape names the future? Perhaps for arinto, touriga nacional, and maybe on or two others. Otherwise it is probably more important to emphasise the brand. But it can be very small brands e.g. Quinta do Crasto or Quinta de la Rosa to take two examples from the Douro Valley. Brands and branding is probably the way to go rather than the grape varieties, says Charles.

We must also mention the book The Wine and Food Lovers Guide to Portugal: A monumental book on Portugal, its food, the wineries and places to visits, hotels to stay in etc. A travel guide for people who love eating and drinking. By Charles Metcalfe and Kathryn McWhirter of course.

This interview was made at the European Wine Bloggers Conference #EWBC 2009 in Lisbon: http://winebloggersconference.org/europe/

On the book: http://www.innhousepublishing.com/
Charles blog, The wine singer: http://thewinesinger.blog.co.uk/
More on Charles: http://www.wineeducators.com/charles_metcalfe.html

Music: Kaleidoscope, Sol e dad, http://www.jamendo.com

By BKWine, http://www.bkwine.com. Interviewer: Per Karlsson, BKWine

See all our wine videos on our BKWine TV channel: http://www.youtube.com/bkwine

[E] Wines from Portugal #1 with Charles Metcalfe

2009-12-15T18:17:33.428Z

http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm --- PART 1 of the interview with Charles Metcalfe, who can be called the guru on Portuguese wines: on the excellent wine and food in Portugal today.

Charles also talks about the recent history of Portuguese wines. 20 years ago, when Charles and his wife Kathryn wrote their first book about Portuguese wines, there used to be only a small number of producers. Today there is a large variety and large number of a young generation of winemakers in Portugal. The old image of rustic reds and oxidised whites is now history. The new generation winemakers make wonderful wines. Today there is so much more knowledge on how to make high quality wines.

There is a vast variety of Portuguese grape varieties that give wines of characters and flavours that are unique. Some examples: Vinho Verde with aromatic grape varieties such as loureiro; Douro, not just red but also whites; Bucelas with e.g. arinto; etc.

One of the big surprises with Portuguese wines for many people is that there are many excellent fresh and aromatic white wines from grapes such as bical, sercial, and arinto.

Is Portugal perhaps a New World wine country (with all the new technology and new knowledge)? Charles says perhaps, but perhaps not. It is maybe more a question of rediscovery of the old world. Portugal has also benefited enormously benefited from infrastructure investments financed by the European community.

What about the prospects for the Portuguese to market and sell their wines with these local and unknown grape varieties on the international market? Are Portuguese grape names the future? Perhaps for arinto, touriga nacional, and maybe on or two others. Otherwise it is probably more important to emphasise the brand. But it can be very small brands e.g. Quinta do Crasto or Quinta de la Rosa to take two examples from the Douro Valley. Brands and branding is probably the way to go rather than the grape varieties, says Charles.

We must also mention the book The Wine and Food Lovers Guide to Portugal: A monumental book on Portugal, its food, the wineries and places to visits, hotels to stay in etc. A travel guide for people who love eating and drinking. By Charles Metcalfe and Kathryn McWhirter of course.

This interview was made at the European Wine Bloggers Conference #EWBC 2009 in Lisbon: http://winebloggersconference.org/europe/

On the book: http://www.innhousepublishing.com/
Charles blog, The wine singer: http://thewinesinger.blog.co.uk/
More on Charles: http://www.wineeducators.com/charles_metcalfe.html

Music: Kaleidoscope, Sol e dad, http://www.jamendo.com

By BKWine, http://www.bkwine.com. Interviewer: Per Karlsson, BKWine

See all our wine videos on our BKWine TV channel: http://www.youtube.com/bkwine

[E] On cork: interview with Amorim

2009-12-12T13:43:22.406Z

http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm --- Cork in the bottle? Interview with Carlos de Jesus, marketing and communications director from Amorim, the worlds largest producer of natural cork.

There has been a lot of criticism of cork in recent years, and people arguing that other type of stoppers are better: screw caps, plastic corks etc. Is cork a bad material to close bottles with? Is it better always to use screw caps? Is the cork the ultimate culprit for cork taint, corked wine, wine that tastes bad when opened? But perhaps "the rumour of my death has been highly exaggerated".

Carlos argues that natural cork (from cork oak trees) is still the best bottle stopper:

Cork is the most used bottle stopper, or closure of any, used in the majority of the 16 or 17 billion bottles produced every year. In recent years Amorim has invested 53 million euros to improve the quality of the corks. They have invested in research, process improvements, training, sophisticated chemical analysis equipment, quality control etc etc, and have today very sophisticated tracking and quality control tools which minimise any problems that there may be with cork.

Carlos explains that 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA that is often said to be the reason for cork taint or 'corked' wine bottles) and other anisoles can come from many different sources, not only the cork. A cork stopper has 800 million cells. It comes from a tree that is at least 50 years old (before the first quality harvest). Each tree is then harvested every nine years. We also talk about the oxygen or air transmission between the outside and the wine, through the cork (oxygen ingress) and the oxidising impact that can have on wine.

We also get some views from a cork forest where we see the oak bark (and some cows), as well as newly harvested trees, and a quick visit to a cork factory storage yard. There are huge piles of cork bark drying and waiting to be processed.

More information can be found on Amorims sites:
http://www.corkfacts.com
http://www.amorim.com

This interview was made during a visit to Amorim in connection with the European Wine Bloggers Conference #EWBC 2009 in Lisbon.

Music: El Perez, rumba francesa, http://www.jamendo.com

By BKWine, http://www.bkwine.com

See all our wine videos on our BKWine TV channel: http://www.youtube.com/bkwine

[E] Niepoort Douro #2, Luis Seabra, winemaker

2009-12-05T21:08:19.251Z

http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm --- Interview (Part 2) with Luis Seabra responsible for the vineyards and the winemaking; the Niepoort winemaker. Were sitting at the brand new winery in the Tedo river valley, overlooking the terraced vineyards along the river and the Douro region impressively steep slopes. We are talking about the red wines and about the future of the Douro wines.

Niepoorts four main red wines are Vertente Tinto, Batuta, Redoma and Charme. They also make a new-old red wine called Robustus that is made in an old-fashioned style aged longer in wooden barrel.

Luis Seabra is clearly someone who likes to experiment with different wines, different grapes and different vineyards. There is plenty to material to choose from: there are 40,000 hectares of vineyards, 100 different grape varieties for the reds and 80 different grape varieties for the whites.

So, what will happen in the ten coming years? Luis thinks it is the great challenge of the Douro! For example improving the quality of the wines, but also in quantity, producing wines both of quality and in quantity; perhaps not always going the easy way. Louis speculates in the future strategy and emphasises that the key is to keep true to the origin of the vineyards, while at the same time avoiding doing too much work in the wine cellar: the wines must be allowed to express their origin, soil and grape material. We also draw some parallels with Priorat in Spain and learn some lessons from their mistakes.

And one should not forget the port wines in the Douro; Niepoort is above all a port wine company and without the port wines the Douro would not be the same.

Do not miss Part 1 of the interview where we talk about the white wines and about the style of winemaking at Niepoort.

More on Niepoort: http://www.niepoort-vinhos.com

This interview was made during a visit to the Douro Valley and the Douro Boys wineries in connection with the European Wine Bloggers Conference #EWBC 2009 in Lisbon.

Music: Mofessor, ScentoMeter, www.Podsafeaudio.com

By BKWine, http://www.bkwine.com

See all our wine videos on our BKWine TV channel: http://www.youtube.com/bkwine