Sigh…this picture is the view from my front window. Yup, last day of March and it’s pretty wintery to say the least. This is where I live: Central Alberta. Not only are we (all) dealing with COVID-19, I get to deal with lovely weather to boot. I guess if I want to be thankful for something, it’s that I’d rather have this now, than in mid-April (which happens…often, in my neck of the woods!) So if you are in isolation, it feels all the more…well, isolated with this weather.

Anyway…I’ve decided to feature Portugal again, but not Port! Sometimes Portugal gets put into a ‘box’, many thinking that all they make is Port. In fact, their still wines are pretty darn awesome. Like Spain, in Portugal, there’s a lot of great quality/value ratio wines out there.

Pretend you’re in the middle of summer, the patio lights are on, you’ve got T-bone steaks on the barbecue, with good ol’ baked potatoes with all the fixins’, the only missing is a big, bad-boy red wine to pair with it. Tonight’s wine is the BRUTALIS, named aptly because it’s just that. Big, bold and bad-assed..and there’s no other way to describe it! Made with a blend of 80 % Alicante Bouschet and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, you’ve got two thick-skinned grapes, (especially Alicante) which means first of all, you have a deep, dark purple wine in colour.

This wine is PERFECT for us here in Alberta – we’re the home of Alberta Beef after all, and if we don’t like sweet, we like our wines, red, dark and bold. Period. Not only is the juice inside bold, the bottle itself is sturdy with a mother of a wax seal on the cork. (BTW, when opening a bottle with a wax seal, just put the corkscrew right through the wax. There’s no need to peel the wax off first – that’s a waste of time! When you pull the cork out, the wax will come with it!) It’s already five years old, and with a decant, perfectly drinkable now, but also ageable. You choose.

I love the description of this wine!: BRUTALIS is not exactly an elegant wine, but it’s not over-extracted either! It looks at first like a rough soul with hairs all over his chest which goes directly to the matter but without dismissing subtleties and a gentleman’s good manners, while it bombards your senses with an array of well polished exaggerations. It’s like an iron hand in a velvet glove. (Vidigal website) Well, ok! There’s lots of clove spice, cedar and black fruits of blackberry, black cherry, dark chocolate, smoke and cigar box. Wow. Lots going on here and needs that big piece of protein to pair!

Cheers to Day Nine! Felicidades!