“Yes, I used to be from here, but today, with each new landscape I return, I feel like a stranger, an outsider to what I see and hear, old within myself… I have a kind of duty to always dream, because being nothing more than a spectator of myself, I have to have the best spectacle I can.” Fernando Pessoa
Published a year before I was born and 47 years after the death of Fernando Pessoa (in 1982), "The Book of Disquiet" is authored by Bernardo Soares, his semi-heteronym. "Semi" because this personality presents characteristics very similar to those of Fernando Pessoa, who uses it to construct his own biography: his confessions.
The book is designed like a labyrinth where it's very easy for the reader to get lost. It contains over 500 texts without a beginning, middle, or end, which took 20 years to write, and yet remain incomplete.
It's a disturbing book that leads us to try to understand who we are, why we are, who we are for, and, particularly, where we are from. Where we feel we belong and where we feel like strangers.
Do these kinds of questions of belonging also arise for a caste? terroir Does the traditional use of a particular grape variety necessarily have to stifle the creativity of a winemaker? António Costa Boal (producer) and Paulo Nunes (winemaker) answer all these questions with a resounding "no," embodied in the Palácio dos Távoras wines.
I got to know these wines a little better this week during their launch. online of the new Távoras Palace Baga 2016, This is the first wine of this grape variety in the Trás-os-Montes region. The renowned Bairrada grape variety found the conditions for producing a quality varietal on the Mirandela plateau, and what would have been unthinkable a few years ago... has become a reality.
Part of its name, Parcela CB, is owed to Carolina Boal, daughter of António Boal, who in 2012 helped plant the Baga plot. This plot seems to have fallen from the sky, as it resulted from a happy accident. While planting Touriga Nacional, the Costa Boal team ran out of plants and ordered some more from the supplier, but that year, only Baga remained. And so a great wine was born 😉
O Távoras Palace, Parcel CB Baga 2016 (€20, 91 pts.) This crystalline ruby-colored wine displays black plum, red blackberry, silo, a subtle "balsamic cola" (not as a flaw but more along the lines of a discreet spicy resin) and slightly vanilla and smoky notes (the nose doesn't lie, it's Baga). On the palate, it somewhat confuses our perception because it is rustic (respecting the grape variety), very fresh (respecting the region), warm, dry, with austere tannins, balanced and long. It pleases both the palate and the intellect and has everything to improve in the bottle.
This acidity and rusticity perfectly complemented the unctuousness of a Beef tenderloin, braised endives, peas, chickpeas and meat juse.
I took the opportunity to pair this dish with, also, Távoras Palace Alicante Bouschet 2017 (€30, 90 pts.) It is a dense ruby wine, very fragrant with wild berry compote, blueberries, cherries, cocoa, hay and black pepper. On the palate it demonstrates excellent volume, structure, concentration and elegant tannins.
The very next day, two more Palácio dos Távoras wines, both from old vines, a hallmark of this winery. First, the Palácio dos Távoras. Távoras Vinhas Velhas Branco 2018 (€20, 90 pts.), which was dressed in a faded citrus yellow color and displayed orange blossom, grapefruit, lemon verbena and mineral notes of wet stone (almost saline) on the nose. On the palate it is very complex, harmonious, fresh, elegant, full and persistent. I liked it very much.
Finally, to accompany a six-month aged Serra cheese, a wine with a very beautiful aroma, the Palácio dos Távoras Vinhas Velhas Tinto 2016 (€20, 91 pts.). With an intense and clean ruby color, it carries aromas of wild berries, plum, strawberries, cocoa, black pepper, vegetal breezes, and light smokiness. On the palate, it is very elegant, round, with beautiful acidity and a very persistent finish.
Wines that seem to have fallen from the sky, whether due to the origin of the grape varieties or the elegance with which they strut before our senses, but which in reality are the result of dedicated, persistent work and expertise.
And as they say, home is where we are well treated, I'm sure Baga won't feel too out of place, being a foreigner or outsider in its new home. Often, to understand who we are, we have to discover ourselves in new landscapes 😉 Congratulations to António Boal and Paulo Nunes, with wines like these they have a kind of duty to always dream 😉
Beef tenderloin, braised endives, peas, chickpeas and meat jusand:
-For the meat jus, use some bones that still have pieces of meat (ask at the butcher, if it's beef or lamb, even better); coarsely chopped onion, carrot and celery; and let it cook for 2 hours over low heat. At the end of cooking, strain the mixture to keep only the liquid. Add butter, salt, pepper, port wine and a little lemon. Let it reduce by half over low heat;
-Lightly grill (3 minutes) the snap peas, peas and chickpeas in butter;
-Heat olive oil in a frying pan with the brown sugar and nutmeg and let it melt. Add the endives with the cut side facing down (and without the bottom part of the stem). Cover and let them sweat over low heat. Add lemon juice and brandy and set aside;
Grill the beef steak in butter over very high heat for two minutes on each side, seasoned with fleur de sel and black pepper.
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