There is a lot to unpack here with this wine.

Firstly it is my wife’s favourite go to wine, mine also I should say. This wine has been a great companion to us in some of the most important conversations and moments in our lives. We discovered this wine around 2012 and back then, the vintage was a young 2011. I reckon I need to knock on some wood here, but till now we haven’t received a single corked bottle from this producer.

Does it have something to do with the resilient characteristics of this region? Where the vines are planted in sandy soil and the roots (in order to find water) have to dig as deep as 9 meters!!! Or maybe it is the very dark tone of the bottle with its protective black label that keeps all those sun infrared soldiers out of this great drop. Just to mention that the Palmela Region is a very old region, well known to anyone that knows what they are talking about in respect of wine in the last couple of centuries.

For those wine enthusiasts… Phylloxera (an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide) was so devastating to the wine industry at the turn of the 20th century, that entire wine productions were wiped out across Europe. France, Spain, Italy and Portugal completely lost their entire harvests to this bug that originally came from America. Nowadays, roses are kept at the outer areas of the vines as a solution to this problem. However the Palmela and Colares region which are both situated outside of Lisbon, were the only ones that survived this crisis in Portugal, due to its sandy soils and resilient vines.

Sandy soils on the Herdade Do Esporao

I’ve learned all of this when studying about wine 20 odds years ago and have been struck by the impressive quality of these wines and how they have survived and clearly thrived.

With the wine shop, myself and Fiona will have to diversify our evenings so we can keep up to date with best wines out there but there is always going to be one evening where we will go…It’s Pegos Claros night.

Pegos Claros Reserva stands out for its elegance and personality. It is a great gastronomic partner, but it also agrees with a pleasant evening in good company.

Out of curiosity. What is yours? Do you have a go to wine, for those nights where you know what you are getting and gives you comfort. Discuss it in comments below, we will be interested to know. If we don’t have it we will get it for you…