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Elegant Portuguese wines paired with exquisite French cuisine make for a memorable evening of dining at The Tasting Room at City of Dreams

 

 

Last month for one night only, Michelin-starred restaurant The Tasting Room at Crown Towers at City of Dreams brought a distinctive selection of red wines from Quinta Vale D. Maria in Portugal’s famous wine region Douro, including its signature vintage “Vinha da Francisca”, for a wonderful blend of sophisticated French gastronomy and Portuguese wine excellence.

 

The exclusive wine pairing dinner featured a seasonal four-course dinner beautifully prepared by Chef de Cuisine Guillaume Galliot. Each course was paired with two glasses of Douro Red of same appellation but different vintages from Quinta Vale D. Maria, one of the oldest estates in the heart of the Douro Valley, offering a vertical tasting experience that further showcased the excellence of the different vintages. 

 

Owner Cristiano van Zeller acquired Quinta Vale D. Maria in 1996 and today it has over 30 hectares of vineyards up to 80 years old. Planted with grape varieties that cover a broad spectrum of the Douro traditional varieties – Tinta Amarela, Rufete, Tinta Barroca and Tinta Roriz, amongst many others – the winery provides a unique and outstanding quality base for both Ports and Douro Red Wines.

 

Cristiano attended the dinner, together with his daughter Francisca van Zeller, the inspiration behind the winery’s very first vintage “Vinha da Francisca”.

 

 

 

 

Francisca van Zeller:  In this wine there are five varieties from the 41 in our estate: Tinta Francisca which was originally planted in the Douro for the first time by my ancestors in 1756, so is considered the family variety; Touriga Nacional which is widely planted in the region and very well known; Touriga Franca probably our favourite variety as it is wonderfully fruity and very balanced; Sousão and Rufete.  It’s our first-ever vintage brand, and uses grapes that are foot-trodden and fermented in lagar for seven to 10 days at temperatures that vary between 22 and 27 degree Celsius. The ageing in 100 percent new French oak casks concentrates the original mature tannins of the wine and helps smoothen its power, resulting in a very elegant wine with great balance and finesse and a very long and fruity finish.

 

 

We have been identifying special parcels around our valley because of the different varieties and the age of the vineyards, and when we are able to acquire them, we make wines from them.  The first one was CV (Curriculum Vitae), which is a vineyard of 3.3 hectares with over 25 different varieties.  Then there was Vinha da Francisca with five varieties, and Vinha do Rio with nearly 20. It’s that specific mixture that makes the parcels unique, not the individual grape varieties themselves, and this is what adds complexity and makes it impossible to repeat anywhere else in the world.  Our blending is a ‘field blend’ and every foot is a different variety.  We find that it is better to blend the fruit rather than to blend the wine.  Blending during fermentation creates a better complexity than blending after the wines have been produced. 

 

 

The greatest knowledge I have acquired is that you can’t take anything for granted.  If I look at my family history, I can see that it has been through many things. We have sold companies, recovered companies, rebuilt other companies and started from scratch many times. The biggest responsibility is understanding that it’s about hard work every day and if we have to start over, we start over.

 

 

We have two brands: Quinta Vale D. Maria our estate; and Van Zeller’s and Company, our old family brand that we are recovering. So we have the privilege that not many small producers have, and that is to have two strategies: making the estate wines and terroir wines; and then being able to go back to the old traditions to recover the old philosophies of making Port – even directing the production of our red wines in a Port wine way if you can say that. There’s a lot of things that we can go back to and study and experiment with. 

 

 

 

Quinta Vale D. Maria Vinha da Francisca Douro Red 2011 versus 2012

 

Quinta Vale D. Maria Douro Red 2011 versus 2012

 

Quinta Vale D. Maria Vinha do Rio Douro Red 2011 versus 2012

 

Quinta Vale D. Maria Vintage 2002 & Vale D. Maria 1970 Colheita Old Tawny Port

 

 

AGENCIA COMERCIAL VINO VERITAS 

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