Sips: Some of this summer’s best new rosés

Dozens of rosés have come my way in recent weeks, and in my latest MSNBC column I highlight ten outstanding wines from Spain, France, Portugal, Austria, Washington and Oregon, where they are making some superb rosés of pinot noir in the Willamette Valley. I was struck by the inherent value of these ten wines. They pack a lot of complexity for $20 or under (just one of them had a suggested price of $20) and they demonstrated again that rosés are not only great aperitif wines, but are highly versatile food wines that can be enjoyed with everything from fish to grilled meats. I have always thought that rosés can and should be enjoyed throughout the year, although most people view them as a rite of spring and summer. Most rosés currently available are from the 2011 vintage, but those from 2010 I tasted were just fine. Because there are so many good rosés available, I’ll have another list of standouts later in the summer.

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Sips: From Portugal, Herdade da Comporta Red 2007

Recommended. Red berry fruit and some blueberry emerge as this wine from the Peninsula de Setubal region on the central Atlantic coast opens up. There’s a big oak influence and muscular tannins, which demand red meat. The fruit is concentrated, accented by a powdery cinnamon note.  A blend of 40 percent aragonez (tempranillo), 40 percent alicante bouschet, 10 percent touriga franca and 10 percent trincadeira. Alcohol is 13.5 percent. Decant one to two hours before drinking. I enjoyed it with a smoky steak grilled in the fireplace. Imported by Value Vines, North Caldwell, New Jersey. Received as a press sample.

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The Daily Sip: Esporão, from Portugal’s Alentejo, hits the mark with its distinct and delicious wines

Another Portuguese wine company is starting to make its mark in this country and, based on a tasting the other night, it is not hard to see why. The company is Esporão, located in the Alantejo region in Portugal’s south. At a dinner for wine media and trade professionals, I tasted 10 of Esporão’s wines and came away impressed by their quality and scope.

The evening began with a sampling of several limited production, single varietal wines. This was an interesting exercise in that blends are the norm in Portugal, in the wines as in the Ports. Among the standouts were the 2007 Alicante Bouschet and the 2007 Touriga Naçional, cleverly and simply called AB and TN on their labels.

Both grapes do well in the arid conditions of Alantejo. The Alicante Bouschet is a muscular wine packed with red and black fruit and black pepper, meat and leather notes. David Baverstock, an Australian who has been Esporão’s winemaker for 18 years, maintained that it needs years in the bottle to reach its peak, though I found it quite accessible.

The Touriga Naçional is a delicious example of Portugal’s flagship variety with dark cherry and violet notes, good supporting acidity and well-integrated oak. When I asked Baverstock about the need for acidification of the wines, given the region’s hot climate, he conceded that there was “a little bit of touch up, for sure.” Production of the wines is about 550 cases each and the suggested price is $35. Production is about 550 cases of each wine.

As we moved on to dinner at the restaurant Craft in lower Manhattan, it was time to taste Esporão’s two flagship Reserva wines, which should be competitive with many similarly priced wines in the American market. The 2007 Reserva White, $20, is made from the Roupeiro, Arinto and Antão Vaz grapes. This elegant, aromatic wine is marked by citrus and floral notes. Partial barrel fermentation imparts a bit of creaminess. It went particularly well with monkfish wrapped in pancetta.

The 2007 Reserva Red, $25, which I have tasted several times now, has become a favorite. It’s a blend of Aragonês (Tempranillo), Cabernet Sauvignon and Trincadeira, which combine seamlessly in a wine of beautiful complexity and approachability. Lots of layers here, including blackberry and red berry notes, black pepper, and touches of meat and herbs, earth, chocolate and coffee. It was superb with roasted beef sirloin.

This is the second group of wines from Alentejo I have sampled in recent months (see my review of Enoforum’s wines), with both showing impressive fruit and and winemaking and whetting my appetite for more from a country that has long languished in the American market. Esporão’s wines are imported by Aidil Wines & Liquors, Newark, New Jersey.

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Sips: Portugal’s Enoforum creates wines for export with some exciting releases

In wine, as in other areas of journalism, we sometimes get our ideas – or germs of ideas -- from savvy PR and marketing folks who know when they have an interesting story to tell on behalf of their clients and have a good sense when writers might be interested.  One of the more diligent and delightful of them is Jo Diaz, who runs her own communications company in Windsor, California in Sonoma County.

When Jo asked recently if I cared to meet a new client, a principle in a relatively new Portuguese wine company, I quickly took her up on her offer even though I don’t usually meet individually with winemakers or executives because I tend to shy away from being a captive audience of one. What happens if I don’t like the  wines? In any event, I had a hunch that Jo was on to something unusual. And so we sat down for dinner last week at The Modern, one of my favorite New York restaurants, with her  client (who picked up the bill, I will disclose right off the bat). But enough on the preliminaries.

The company is called Enoforum, and it is a partnership formed  at the end of 2004 involving half a dozen wineries in Portugal’s Alentejo region in the hot  south of the country. The general manager, Delfim Costa, explained that the company was created solely to produce wines, under a number of new labels, for export to the United States and, secondarily, to other markets around the world, including Poland, Holland, Russia and Canada as well as Brazil and Angola with their strong Portuguese connections.

Some 80,000 cases or so were exported last year and Enoforum draws on production from each of the six wineries to create its wines, all of them blends, under the direction of José Fonseca, the winemaker.