Douro wines at the table. Beyond Port, a field blend for food.

From Port country to dry reds

Cristiano van Zeller's family has been working in the Douro for more than 400 years. He tells how his first ancestor in Portugal was born in Rotterdam in 1703 and married into a family already trading in wine. At Quinta do Noval, the family company, he began experimenting with dry red wines in 1985, then continued at Quinta do Crasto from 1994. In 2007 he bought back the old family firm Van Zellers & Co, and he makes wine at Quinta Vale D. Maria.

Andreas speaks of an unforeseen revolution in quality in Portugal, and the Douro is one of the clearest examples. A region once devoted to fortified wine now makes complex reds and whites alongside its Ports.

The field blend behind Curriculum Vitae

CV, short for Curriculum Vitae, comes from a single vineyard of about three hectares, more than 90 years old according to Cristiano. It holds more than 30 different grape varieties, all mixed together in a field blend. Nobody knows the exact percentages, and they change every vintage as each variety yields differently.

The grapes are crushed by foot and fermented in large granite lagares, the same method used for the best Ports. Cristiano says they keep doing it not out of tradition, but because it still makes the best wine. For him, the Douro is about blends, complexity and diversity rather than single varieties.

Cristiano says the Douro has 64 red and 48 white grape varieties, and he rattles off a good number of them from memory: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roriz and Sousão among the reds, Viosinho, Rabigato, Arinto and Códega among the whites. Andreas confesses that in Portugal he no longer worries about the exact blend in the glass.

Cod with oxtail bourguignon

Andreas's dish is a love letter to Portugal and to red wine. He lightly salts a loin of cod, a nod to Portuguese bacalhau, and serves it with an oxtail bourguignon: oxtail simmered for hours in plenty of red wine with carrots, onion, garlic and celery, then strained, reduced and finished with smoked pork belly, small onions and mushrooms.

The lesson is clear. A bold red with dark berry fruit and plenty of ripe tannin can go with fish when the sauce carries the weight. As Andreas puts it, it is not a question of meat or fish, "it's about the sauce and the intensity." Cristiano agrees: cod with red wine is common in Portugal too.

White Port and other Douro pairings

Cristiano also brings a cask sample of a Reserve white Port, well over ten years old and served chilled. It is made like a red, trodden in granite lagares and oxidized in cask from day one, which explains its deep color and notes of orange zest and dried spices.

His own pairing ideas are adventurous. He likes game with Douro reds, creamy cheeses with his barrel-fermented whites and grilled sea bass with his red. For young vintage Port he suggests a steak au poivre: the fresh red berry fruit loves the pepper and cream. Port, he insists, is not only for dessert or as an aperitif.

A blind red and an oxtail taco

Then Cristiano hands over his secret wine. Andreas finds wild berries, thyme, rosemary, pepper and tobacco leaf, rejects most of the fridge and goes back to his oxtail, turning it into an oxtail chili taco with a green pea guacamole and pico de gallo. Watch to find out whether he places the wine, and how Cristiano fares in the food and wine memory challenge.