Download July 2010 - Bite Magazine

10
WINE
VINHO VERDE
Wining with wee ones
It’s July and school’s out
If you have children you are probably
counting the days ‘til the little gems
will be heading back to school and I
can guess you have been trying to steal
a moment to sit quietly in your back
garden and enjoy a glass of wine or
three. For those of us that don’t have
kids, well, we’ve been enjoying those
quiet moments and the glass(es) of
wine for a while now. So whether you
have kids or not, when you get that
quiet moment here is a little
something that might interest your
taste buds.
Vinho Verde. A simple “green wine”
from Portugal. This sprightly little
wine’s vines are traditionally grown
high above the ground to compensate
for the lack of space that the grapes
are grown in. Something like 90% of
the holdings are less than 5 ha. The
vines are trained to be grown on high
granite posts leaving room for further
vines to be grown underneath in order
to maximise the space thus leaving the
harvest to be done by hand from
ladders perched against the posts.
Traditionally the wine is of lower
alcohol content, approximately 10% by
volume. This lower alcohol is a result
of not using all the yeast during
fermentation therefore creating an
ever-so-slightly sweet wine.
Suppressed carbon dioxide during
fermentation creates a slight natural
sparkling or “pétillance”, leaving the
wine slightly acidic, very fresh, light
and impressively fragrant.
Vinho Verde is perfect for that quiet
moment in the sun, or if you just need
to regain your sanity it is not so
alcoholic that you forget you even
have kids!
W’est Solutions is a wine tasting and
wine training company working with
corporate groups,
hotels/restaurants and private
individuals.
If you would like to learn more
about W’est Solutions or would like
to provide comments or subjects for
upcoming articles, log onto
www.westwinetasting.com or call
Sandy at 07871 793 801 or email at
info@westwinetasting.com