04/10/2026
I always say if you must drink inexpensive wine, may it be Portuguese. The most bang for your buck of all the wine places, particularly old world, and they have been at it as long as anybody, despite forever and to this day being under appreciated by the wine over educated and minus valued by luxury junkies trading in their taste buds for the chemical and social endorphin cocktail of successfully seeking French approval, I guess. But why? Cuz nothing is cooler than punk rock and thats what I consider Portugal if I had to give them a genre to explain my perception of their approach, even though that is pointless because they could care less about anybody giving them anything; their game has always been too good to notice who’s on a podium when they only honor the echelon of individuality with no time or space for gates or their keeping. Portuguese reds are always epic mouthfulls of living on their own terms and if you are the type that craves a red that hits unapologetically and artistically enough too get away with it than this blend from Porrais is your guy. Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Sousa and Tinta Barroca get onstage and dirty it up like Tempranillo Who? while coming at you with some kind of baseline blend that has you leaving any affinity for upper middle class Bordeaux faster than the soft rock station on your radio dial cuz its too Douro mighty and primal to be ignored, but also soothes some kind thirst and angst inside you like a river nobody ever swims in or a dark bar on a sunny day, all animalistic and ancient and world class if you are exotic and humble enough to notice, with no ostentatious insults to your intelligence, just deep pulsing red wine being unequivocally itself.