Cortes de Cima: interview with winemaker Hamilton Reis. Cortes de Cima is a winery in the Alentejo region in Portugal, an hour an a half east of Lisbon. Their total range includes more than a dozen wines. The main:
Chamine is the entry level wine, a blend with mainly Portuguese grape varieties (aragonez, trincadeira and touriga nacional) and syrah, made to be fruity, silky tannins, young and fresh, an everyday wine.
The cuvee Cortes de Cima, in a way the flagship of the winery. It is a blend with the same grapes plus a bit of cabernet sauvignon, a bit barrel ageing (French and American oak). More full bodied, more complex, rich, deep.
Then come the varietals:
Syrah (of different kinds), trincadeira, and touriga nacional varietal wines (and some other). They are even more ambitious wines. The objective is to showcase the grape varieties, show the wine drinker what these grape varieties mean and their true character. The touriga nacional is one of the top class wines – intense, floral wine. Touriga is not originally from the Alentejo, rather the Douro, but they have planted it in their vineyards with very good results.
Reserva: mainly from syrah and aragones, which they position as a world class top quality wine.
Incognito, is a also top class wine, 100% syrah, selected grapes, the most ambitious wine they make; from a special clone of the syrah, with raspberry, black pepper, spicy, deep and powerful.
The three top of the range wines, side by side, are the varietal Touriga Nacional, Cortes de Cima Reserva, and Incognito.
The winemaking is based on a winemaking philosophy and ideal style: smooth tannins (very important), smooth texture, full bodied wines, ripe fruit.
By BKWine, https://www.bkwine.com
Interview & production: Per Karlsson, BKWine
Editing: Louise Duseigneur
Music: Patrik Lundin
© Copyright BKWine AB 2011
This video was made at the occasion of the European Wine Bloggers Conference 2009 in Lisbon (#EWBC). More info on the upcoming wine blogger conference here.
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