My goal for this early stage of the website’s development has been to generate content. With each new post I want to add, not just another blog, but additional information in both my Wine Guide and World Map. Further down the road I hope to expand the guide to include more information on regions, and maybe even things like winemaking, cooperage, trellising, etc.
At the moment there are a couple of significant omissions on my World Map, specifically I need to review wines from California, Chile, New Zealand, and Portugal. I hope to have all of these, as well as more neglected winemaking countries like Montenegro, Israel, Hungary, Moldova covered within my first fifty Wine Diary posts. As I shop for wines to review I keep an eye out for bottles from these areas, as well as unfamiliar grapes, or just wines that seem out of the ordinary.
This week I get to scratch Portugal off that list. Although their wine is amazing, it’s often overshadowed by wines from neighboring countries on store shelves. In fact, for being a well-established Old World wine country, it’s surprising how little I find from Portugal. The majority of what I see are fortified wines, both Port and Madeira come from Portugal and are staples in any well-stocked wine store, but the country’s dry red and white wines are often overlooked. I found this bottle at Gene’s Sausage Shop in Lincoln Square and decided to pick it up.
Chasing Harvest is produced by traveling winemakers Michael and Jennifer Kush from Chicago. In cooperation with Quinta da Costa vineyard in the Douro region of Portugal, they have put together this blend of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), and Touriga Franca for thirsty consumers like you and me.
I feel like I spend a lot of time attacking vineyard and winemaker websites for frustrating design and a general lack of information. I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to mention that the Chasing Harvest site is refreshingly simple and straight forward, it provided all of the information I was looking for in a short, concise, and user-friendly way.
Speaking of refreshing, they also make a damn good wine. Chasing Harvest Douro DOC 2013 had a nice blackberry/ black cherry flavor, well-balanced acid and tannin, with notes of fig and dried fruit that brought complexity to the blend. This was a wine that seemed to evolve as I drank it, a bottle to sit and explore, perfect for conversation with friends, or to have with a hearty stew or Sunday roast. If you find a bottle consider yourself fortunate (or you go to one of these stores on the list Chasing Harvest provides).