Saturday 15 November 2008

Lagoalva 'Monte da Casta' Branco 2006

Ribatejo, Portugal, MOP90, diam cork seal
It's only three weeks to Macao Marathon and it's all beginning to look a little terrifying. Apart from concerns over the obvious lack of fitness, there's a serious chance that I'll run out of coffee and this was the last bottle of Portuguese wine in the house. I enjoyed this wine's red sibling a little while ago; and while this label is almost identical it does unfortunately lack the horses. It's made by the Quinta da Lagoalva winery whose useless website promotes ice-cream and agricultural machinery and says nothing about their wines. The more informative back label tells me it's a blend of Arinto, Chardonnay and Fernão Pires.

It's a lovely light golden colour. The nose has an initial burst of peach, buttery oak and tropical fruits, but very soon it's all aboard the melon train. There are traces of the lush tropical fruit on the palate, but the prominent flavours are red apples complimented with almonds. The alcohol in this is seamlessly integrated, but what's most impressive is the long, long finish. 'Monte da Casta' Branco 2006 is in many ways a great food wine: it's tasty, full, yet still fresh and lively. Good drinking; I like this a lot.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a bad time though: 01:39:03.
Well done!

John D

Anonymous said...

Or was that 2007?

John D

Anonymous said...

And it was the half marathon...
...belated Happy Birthday, anyway.

John D

Andrew said...

Hey Mate

Yeah not finishing a marathon in 1.37, probably impossible. Didn't manage to get organsied to do the Macau one in 2008, but it's one of my favourite races wo will definitely be doing it again in 2009.

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

Cheers
Andrew

Anonymous said...

Hey Andrew,

Have you paused because of the school holidays?

We look forward to your next posting!

John D

Andrew said...

Hey John

Yeah I've been away, but back in town now and ready to get on with it. have a few interesting posts from Europe as well so should be cool.

Andrew