The first time I tasted a Brazilian wine was in Paris where, as a national serviceman in the RAF a long time ago, I was lucky enough to spend almost two years and sometimes to eat in a bustling left-bank Brazilian restaurant called La Venta. Their wine was served in wicker-covered bottles, in the old Italian way, and it went memorably well with the steaks and casseroles that were on the menu. Vibrantly atmospheric music was played. It was a good place to visit, either alone or with friends.
The second place in which I tasted Brazilian wine was here in Edinburgh more than half a century later - last night, in fact - at the charmingly rustic Ellersly House Hotel in Murrayfield where it was served at a family wedding dinner, a merry celebration that had been launched two months ago in Mexico, where Andy, son of one of my wife’s cousins, was marrying Brenda, a Mexican he had met and fallen in love with in Italy. A large portion of the Scottish side of the family and their friends were at the Ellersly to join them and to receive, as a gift, a designer Mexican tile and a buttonhole consisting of a red ceramic pimento intertwined with a thistle.
And it was here in Edinburgh that the red Alisios, made from Spanish Tempranillo and Portuguese Touriga Nacional grapes, was copiously poured, perhaps because the hotel rated it highly or simply because it was the closest they could get to serving something Mexican.
But in fact, as I found out, red Alisios is a newcomer to the Ellersly list, Brazilian wines having only recently begun to establish themselves in Britain. This one fully justified its arrival. With its savoury, somewhat peppery yet mellow taste, it suited the lively occasion. For me, it was like going back to the vivacity of La Venta.
Reviews of Brazilian wines are beginning to creep into the British broadsheet newspapers. This was an example not only worth drinking but locally available, both at the Ellersly and, as I have discovered, through M&S (I shan’t quote the price, which is not inconsiderable), where it can be bought either by the bottle or, with a slight reduction, by the half-case.
1 June 2014
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