At the 19th edition of Essência do Vinho, which took place at the beginning of the year in Porto, the Top 10 Portuguese wines were announced, with emphasis on a 50-year-old Madeira wine, an Arinto from the Azores, an Alfrocheiro from Dão and a Fernão Pires from Almeirim.
Consisting of three fortified wines, three whites, three reds and a late harvest wine, the Top 10 of the 19th edition of the event comes from blind tastings carried out by an international jury of four dozen specialists to around sixty samples.
In fortified wines – fortified wines are those whose alcoholic fermentation is interrupted by the addition of wine brandy at a given time of fermentation. Depending on the time of interruption and the grape being used, it will be more or less sweet, and the final alcoholic strength is between 19-22 percent volume. The best scored by the international jury was the Madeira wine Frasqueira Blandy´s Bual 1972, followed by the Port Sandeman Old Tawny 50 Years and the Adega de Favaios Moscatel do Douro Colheita 1989.
Among the white wines, first place went to Pé do Monte Reserva Arinto dos Açores 2020, from the island of Pico, with Vinha dos Utras 2020, also from the Azores, in second place, and with Quinta da Rede Reserva da Família 2012, from Douro, coming in third.
Among the red wines tasted, Líquen Alfrocheiro 2020, made in Dão, obtained the highest score, followed by Tecedeiras Único 2019, from the Douro region, and Encosta do Sobral Grande Reserva 2019, from Tejo, from the Lisbon region.
As for the late harvest wines subject to tasting, Falcoaria Colheita Tardia 2016, obtained from the Fernão Pires variety in Almeirim, was the one that achieved the biggest protagonism.
