Portugal and Morocco - A Discovery of Southern Wine

Thanks to Eid this year Friday 3rd of October was a holiday so I seized the chance to take myself away on a mini-break to Sagres (yep the beer is named after it!) in the Algarve, Portugal. Although the Algarve is not an area known for it's wine there are lots of local producers and I found the wine to be be fruity and delicious, of which the reds have a great affinity for oak. A good local producer is Quinta do Barranco Longo and one of our favourite meals was in a restaurant in Vila do Bispo called A Eira do Mel where they had a great selection of local wines. One of the wines or should I say experiences, that I truly loved was a white Dao, drunk with fish on a terrace over looking the sea, it was a perfect moment and one sadly that was unsuccessfully recreated in southeast London. White Dao is definitely a wine that needs a holiday context! But some lovely house wines were consumed, Vila Velha did a nice line in Quinta do Carqueijal Duoro wines both red and white which were very good value. However being in Sagres more beer than usual was consumed on this holiday.

With the arrival of half term came a highly anticipated trip to Morocco. I remember my first ever trip there about 15 years ago being a very sober affair, wine wasn't something I was particularly interested in then and being a Muslim country alcohol was quite difficult to get hold of and was rather pricey because of it, though I do remember getting very drunk on a bottle of rose in a Chinese restaurant in Casablanca! This time however most places we stayed in had a fantastic selection of Moroccan wines. The first part of the trip was in Marrakech staying in the very well located Riad Dar Najat. Our first meal was at the highly recommended La Maison Arabe where I had my first ever glass of Vin Gris, no, it's not grey! More orange really, but very similar to a rose in style. I wasn't blown away, but it was very pleasant. We then moved on to reds, the Cuvee President Cabernet Rouge, which was a perfect if not very exciting accompaniment to our tagines. I was excited to see a Syrah, Tandem by the French winemaker Alain Graillot on their wine list which happened to be their most expensive wine as the Wine Society used to sell it, don't know why they no longer do, luckily I still have a bottle, it is a lovely full-bodied spicy Syrah and as it says, a great accompaniment to a lamb dish.
There are 14 wine regions in Morocco and a lot of the wines I saw on the wine lists came from the areas of Gerrouane near Meknes. Most wine lists had many of the same wines on them which  included the Domaine de Sahari Reserve, a Bordeaux blend from the Gerrouane, which became a firm favourite, particularly with our dinners at Maroc Lodge in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The manager David hails from Burgundy so he knew his stuff when making the wine recommendations! The wine industry is really growing in Morocco and it shouldn't be too long until there are some firmly on the shelves in our supermarkets as they are truly delicious, full-bodied and fruity, great with food and very good value.