IT'S a shame we can't all be in Lisbon a week tomorrow to cheer on Goldenballs and the lads.
The Euro 2004 clash between England and France should be a cracker. Like most of us, I'll be watching on TV. But why not add a bit of Portuguese ambience to your Sunday dinner? Any one of the following four Portuguese reds would be a good one-two (sic) have with roast beef.
To kick off then, with a bottle of Chamine 2001, £7.49 at Oddbins, which is made with aragonez (which is Portuguese for tempranillo) and trincadeira (a Portuguese grape associated with port). It is full-bodied with a purple hue. In keeping with the colour are flavours of violet and blackcurrant, with crushed black peppercorns thrown into the mix. This is a lovely round wine and it's at a good price for a Sunday treat.
Tesco's throw-in is a 2001 bottle of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca. It has good strong, lingering raisin and blackcurrant flavours with just enough oak to be noticed. You could almost serve this full-bodied example by the slice and it's got a good dry finish. At £6.03 I think it's about four pence overpriced but I'll blame Gordon Brown for that. (Where are his team anyway?)
Segada Trincadeira-Castelao 2002 has signed up with Sainsbury's for a transfer fee of £4.59. This wine is the cheapest of the Tipping's Tipples front four but worthy of its place. It has good up-front tannins and flavours of raspberry and brambles. The nose has plenty of raisins and toasted oak.
Finishing nicely with burnt oak flavours is Quinta de Fafide reserva 2001, £7.99 at M&S. This wine comes from Portugal's Douro valley, which is famed for port. Big and chewy with vanilla and plums in abundance, it's impressively smooth. If I had to pick, it would be my favourite of the four and it's just right to go with that Sunday roast.
In a previous Tipping's Tipples column, prior to the England cricket team tour of the West Indies, I suggested captain Michael Vaughan should encourage his team to drink wine. Since it worked wonders for the cricket team, producing a series win, I am sending the same message to the England football team manager Sven-Goran Erikkson.
But Sven, please make sure our boys don't drink too many glasses on the night before a match.
Chamine 2001, £7.49 at Oddbins ****
Touriga Nacional & Touriga Franca 2001, £6.03 at Tesco ****
Segada Trincadeira-Castelao 2002, £4.59 at Sainsbury's ****
Quinta de Fafide reserva 2001, £7.99 at M&S ****
Updated: 10:41 Saturday, June 05, 2004
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