One of the questions I’m most often asked, along with where my name comes from, is “Which are the up-and-coming wine regions I should look out for?”
I’ve been banging on about Portuguese reds and Greek whites for years, but now, to my delight, Portuguese whites and Greek reds have caught up. I even found a good Portuguese traditional-method sparkling wine from Caves Transmontanas recently, evidence that the Douro Valley produces so much more than port, even if it faces an existential crisis because grape prices hardly cover production costs, and fewer people are prepared to work the valley’s steep slopes in its harsh climate.
But good wines are coming from across Portugal. Pricing is all over the place, with the more famous producers managing to command quite robust prices, not least because of Portugal’s thriving tourist trade, but there are also bargains aplenty.