The world can always use an inexpensive red wine that ideally matches up equally with a nice weeknight dinner or a weekend extravaganza. Unfortunately, finding a luscious, fruity wine that is still dry and carries enough tannins and acids to cleanse the palate can be hard work at any price.
Portugal’s Duorum (Latin for “from two”) winery is the invention of two of the country’s most interesting winemakers, João Portugal Ramos and José Soares Franco. They make a range of wines, but my favorite – for its combo of quality and price – is their red wine called Tons de Duorum Douro ($11).
It is a blend of Portugal’s most famous red varietals, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz. If those names don’t jump out at you, suffice to say the country has centuries of experience in extracting amazingly delicious wine from these grapes. They have some of the brightness of red berries combined with the depth of plums. Given Portugal’s warmish climate, they even carry just a hint of dried fruits like prunes. Not enough to distract, just enough to make the wine sing with grilled meats and barbecue. This one is worth searching for.
This article appears in October 18 • 2019.
