Cortes de Cima » Marketing

THE INTERNATIONAL WINE REVIEW’S TOP 50  PORTUGUESE WINES

Carrie — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:22:19 +0000

“Last year Vini Portugal invited us to taste the wines of Portugal at their source. The result was our Report The New Wines of Portugal. Based on our visit to every major wine producing region of the country and after tasting over 500 wines, we’ve selected our top 50, organized by their region of origin.

Cortes de Cima 2004 Reserva – 92 points – A highly successful ripe and concentrated wine, the 2004 Reserva is a blend of Aragonez (52%) Touriga Nacional (24%), Syrah (14%) Cabernet Sauvignon (10%) aged 12 months in mostly French oak. It reveals good acidity and volume with ripe black cherry and blue fruit flavors and notes of earth and smoky meat. The tannins are soft, and the wine is long on the palate with complex layers of fruit. Very rich and ready to drink.” - THE INTERNATIONAL WINE REVIEW

Mooncakes and the Chinese Language of Wine

Carrie — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:28:21 +0000

Last month I was travelling in Asia with a group of winemakers participating in the International Wine Challenge Asian Trade Tastings, and everywhere talk was of the upcoming Mooncake or Mid-Autumn Festival. This is a popular Chinese lunar harvest festival, held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, (this year falling on Sep. 12th in our calendar) and close to the autumnal equinox.

For the Mooncake Festival, everyone gives and eats Mooncakes, a sweet pastry made from lotus seed paste. As can be expected during the wine tastings, the topic often turned to ‘which wine to pair with Mooncakes?’ Our suggestion, as can be seen below, falls on Chaminé and Cortes de Cima.

For a Chinese wine drinker, using Western terms like ‘blackcurrant’ may be meaningless. In the language of wine, both tasting notes and food pairing ideas need to be linked to Asia’s owns flavors and cuisine. “The extraordinary wide array of flavors to be found in Asian cuisine provides a rich local vocabulary to describe wine’s range of flavors and textures.” - Jeannie Cho Lee MW.

We asked a HongKong based wine educator the Independent Wine Centre to elaborate CHINESE TASTING NOTES and CHINESE FOOD MATCHING suggestions based on some of our wines. Here they are!-

Chaminé Tinto

CHINESE TASTING NOTES : Intense fragrance of dried prunes and preserved plums.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Mongolian barbecue, Cantonese style roast meat. Mooncake.

Chaminé Branco

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: This wine is more fragrant than Chinese pear. It is fresh and lively.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Steamed fresh seafood, Salt and pepper stir fried dish in Southern China

Cortes de Cima

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: Its long aftertaste is reminiscent of roast sesame and the bitter sweetness of ginseng.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH:Braised good quality abalone, Braised sea cucumber with shrimp roe. Mooncake

Syrah

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: Westerners will describe the aroma as mineral but in the food culture of Chinese, this 2007 Syrah reminds us of one of our beloved food – dried seafood, especially dried scallops.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Peking duck, river fish cooked in Northern China style

Touriga Nacional

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: It is not easy to describe this wine in a few words but it reminds us of the rich and colourful smells of a Shanghai candy store.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Stew beef brisket in clay pot, Preserved meat with rice, Fried glutinous rice

Incógnito

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: The fruit aroma is intense, with a strong fried pancake flavour, and a hint of sweet lotus taste.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Cantonese style clay pot dishes, cheese platter shared with a few friends.

Opus Vino

Carrie — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:47:16 +0000

OPUS VINO – MORE THAN 4,000 OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST WINERIES AND THEIR WINES

“CORTES DE CIMA – Owned by Hans Jorgensen, a Dane, and his Californian wife, Carrie, Cortes de Cima has for some years been one of the most modern and forward-thinking estates in the Alentejo. Based in Vidigueira, it has over 250 acres (100 ha) of vines, making a broad portfolio of wines from the inexpensive, highly drinkable Chaminé, through a range of red varieties, up to the top wines – Cortes de Cima Reserva and Incógnito. The latter is its top Syrah, which, when first released, had to hide its identity because growing Syrah at the time was illegal – hence the name. All the wines are ripe and sweetly fruited, but always retain balance and focus.” – Opus Vino

Latest Parker Points – Portugal Issue# 195

Carrie — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:52:01 +0000

Here are the latest reviews and ratings (Portugal Issue# 195) by Robert Parker (Mark Squires) of a few of our wines, recently released or soon to be so -

90 Points - Reserva 2008 - ”It is a lovely wine, seductive and caressing on the palate, graceful, focused and lingering, with reasonably ripe tannins. This is usually Cortes de Cima’s best wine, the most likely wine to be distinguished, and it is again this year. A touch smokey, it is nonetheless a pleasure to drink, a wine that slithers over the mid-palate and seems quite enticing, elegant and ethereal. It is fairly light in the mid-palate, but does not disappear on the finish and indeed seems to linger. The wines of Alentejo do not stereotypically have a reputation for elegance, but this manages to provide some, while remaining flavorful. Drink now-2021.”

89 Points - Incógnito 2008 – “Syrah in full flight, gamey and showing a lot of character, and in this vintage, showing rather crisp and focused as well, with moderately ripe tannins. It is caressing on the palate. The wine seems a bit smokey as well. The mid-palate is rather elegant and focused. To its credit, as it airs out, it shows some potential for improvement in the cellar. As Syrah goes, it is a wine that has some varietal character, and you don’t always get that in Portugal. Drink now-2020.”

85 Points - Chaminé Tinto 2010 – “In most years, it shows nicely for a bargain price and it is quite nice this year, friendly and sweet, a fun wine. Without much concentration in the mid-palate, it nonetheless seems graceful, neither watery nor jammy. There are very ripe tannins and lovely aromatics. For a house pour, this is pretty nice this year, if you are a fan of its sweet, fruity style. It even acquired a little character with air as the sweet nuances subsided and were absorbed into the whole. It is probably ok to hold this a few years, but it will certainly be at its best when youngest and freshest and it is not likely to improve much if at all with cellaring. Drink now-2015.”

#VinoCamp comes to Portugal

Carrie — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:08:46 +0000

Q: What do you get when you mix IT geeks, wine lovers, wine bloggers, and a few wine producers into a crowded room in Belem, Lisbon and feed them with a plethora of ‘pasteis de nata’ rinsed down with Chaminé?
A: a very contented bunch of VinoCampers during their coffee break!

Q: What is VinoCamp ?
A: An un-conference based on the ‘BarCamp’ format. Normally, BarCamps are all about technology. VinoCamp is about technology and wine, or a BarCamp devoted to wine.

Q: What is a BarCamp ?
A: “BarCamps are a type of conference or symposium. They are sort of an anarchic un-Conference, organized by all the attendees at the very last minute. I mean they’re not totally anarchic. There are rules of BarCamp. But the rules are written on a wiki that anybody can change” – Ryan O’Vineyards . The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California, in 2005.

Q: What was VinoCamp Portugal?
A: VinoCamp Portugal was held May 27-29th 2011 with 63 participants from Portugal, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, UK and USA. With people coming from far and wide to attend, the program was extended to give the participants the chance to see more of Portugal and it’s wine industry . ViniCamp Portugal’s 2011 itinerary was as follows:

Day 1 (a fun day in the cork forest and to visit an Amorim cork factory)- organized by one of the sponsors Apcor.
Day 2 (Vinocamp! Barcamp like event where we discuss about wine and web) – held at the Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisboa.
Day 3 ( a day in the vines and in a winery) – the group was bussed down to Cortes de Cima for a winery visit, live online wine tasting, and lunch in our winery tasting room overlooking the vineyards.

Q: Where else are VinoCamps happening?
A: Past VinoCamps have happened in Canada , Paris, Bourgogne and Languedoc. Future ones are soon to take place in Bordeaux and Geisenheim. Or plan one yourself! You can make it happen! All you need is some IT geeks, winelovers (preferably one and the same!), a small venue and throw in something yummy like Chaminé with a pastel nata to get the conversation flowing!

The winesinger drinks and sings ‘Incognito’

Carrie — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:05:15 +0000

During Essencia do Vinho Oporto Hans and the ‘winesinger’ Charles Metcalfe drink Incognito to an Air de l’Incognito from OFFENBACH’s La Perichole.

Latest Wine Spectator Ratings

Carrie — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 16:25:56 +0000

The Wine Spectator has just published their latest ratings for Portuguese wines, including a few of our recent releases. It is interesting to note, that an online search for Wine Spectator ratings of Alentejan wines, results in 490 wines ranging from vintage 1987 to 2009. Only 3 of those wines have achieved over +91 points, being 92 points for Dona Maria Reserva 04 , and 91 points for Cortes de Cima Touriga Nacional 02 and Torre de Esporao 04. After that, there are 18 Alentejan wines scoring 90 points, of which 4 of those 18 are from Cortes de Cima – Incógnito 99, Cortes de Cima 01, Syrah 04, and now the Cortes de Cima 08 (see below).

90 WS – Cortes de Cima 2008

This suave, rich red shows plenty of toasty overtones to the lip-smacking

ripe red fruit flavors. Finishes with a flourish of spice and chocolate.

Drink now through 2015. –KM Mar 31, 2011

89 WS – Petit Verdot 2008

Dense, delivering rich aromas and flavors of ripe plum, dark cherry and

smoked meat. Christmas pudding and chocolate mousse notes extend on

the full-bodied finish, with hints of mint. Drink now through 2015.- –KM Web Only -2011

86 WS – Syrah 2007

Intense spice, mocha and French roast notes fill this ripe red. Chestnut and

maple linger on the finish. Drink now. – KM Web Only -2011

85 WS – Chaminé tinto 2009

A fresh, juicy red, offering snappy flavors of blackberry and spice. The firm

finish is crisp and focused, with peppery notes. Drink now. –KM Feb 28, 2011

Cortes de Cima – Top 8 Touriga Nacionals- Revista Wine

Carrie — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:29:06 +0000

Prova Temática Touriga Nacional. ”Nunca como hoje a Touriga Nacional mereceu tanto protagonismo. Projectada como casta emblemática do nosso país, provámos alguns dos vinhos nacionais que a usam numa percentagem igual ou superior a 85%. Curioso por conhecer os resultados?”

Cortes de Cima Touriga Nacional - ”Cor vermelha intensa de bordo violeta. Intenso e exuberante, efusivo e quase espampanante na exaltação frutada, torna-se fácil gostar deste Touriga Nacional de expressão tão alegre e comunicativa. Fácil e sorridente na boca, ligeiramente adocicado, é um caso de amor à primeira vista.” 15,5. Wine, A Essência do Vinho, Dez.2010 – Rui Falcão