Quinta de Chocapalha wine profile

From the top left: mono varietal white Arinto ready to drink now, Vinha de Palha - basic Rosé from the producer, red Vinha de Palha - basic red ( table wine ) with no oak barrel maturation, White reserva Chocapalha from 2006, red Quinta de Chocopalha with 6 months french oak barrels maturation and finally best of producers wine: red Reserva ready to drink from Christmas this year.

Quinta de Chocapalha in a small family run wine producer in Portuguese Estremadura region. With the privileged location between the rolling hills of Southern Estremadura and nicely renovated, "Quinta" ( English: estate ) is a lovely place to live and make nice wines. We visited the place in mid-July 2009.

Road sign leading us to Quinta. Yu taste wines in the beautiful surroundings. Cork from red Quinta de Chocopalha 2006. Diogo Suplúlveda leading oenologist. Quinta exteriors.

Talking to the owner and the leading enologist is a must-do. To understand and get to know better the Quinta, we usually buy a wide spectrum of the produced wines, starting from the most simple to the best, trying to create a mental and tasting profile of the place.

We started our wine tasting with red Quinta de Chocopalha 2006 ( Vinho Regional Estremadura; made of Tinta Roriz, Castelão, Alicante Bouschet grapes ). The tannins were a little too aggressive I must say. The wine lacked the elegance of Douro wines and tasted a little more like vegetables than fruits. Gained only 14/20 points.

Next day we grabbed a bottle of pale white Arinto 2008. It was a nice middle class wine very similar to the vinho verde whites with a little touch of micro bubbles on your tongue. Got 14,5/20 points on our private scale.

Mid-June 2009.

Maciek.