After the difficult task of selecting five wines to talk about Portugal, the selected wines were three whites (Anselmo Mendes Expressoes 2021, Villa Oliveira Encruzado 2021, Luis Pato Vinhas Velhas 2015) and two reds (Esporao Vinho de Talha 2022 and Quinta do Crasto Reserva Vinhas Velhas 2012). “We have 250 native varieties, and we have brought only three varietals and two 'blends', which we call 'lote', a mixture of different plots and sites,” explains Tiago Macena, in charge of the selection presented at Madrid Fusión. ”The country is small but has many slopes, which makes the wines very different depending on the region.”

To taste them, the haute cuisine inspired by the Lisbon of the Tajo by chef Marlene Vieira, of the Marlene restaurant. “My restaurant is close to the Tajo and I think about Portuguese food and its flavors,” she introduces herself. For the first wines she brings a cauliflower tart with prawns from the Algarve, with a strong scallop sauce, which is mixed with the broth. “It is a 100% Albariño varietal, a green wine aged for nine months in oak barrels and another 24 in the bottle,” Macena describes. ‘Its structure fills the whole mouth, with acidity as the main element, which together with the oak expands and prolongs the body.’ The combination makes you salivate, with the texture that remains in the mouth being more important than the first aromas.

Other dishes are sea belly, in sashimi cured for ten days in brine, bean stew with squid tagliatelli for the red wine and grilled red mullet with black chanterelles and pig's trotters, in a “very creamy” stew, says Vieira, for the second red wine.

The Encruzado white wine, a “rare variety” of which there were only six hectares in 1986 and now 700 are cultivated, is accompanied by a profiterole of cured sheep's cheese, with mousse made with the whey and truffle. Its strong impression combines well with the higher amount of tannins from the grape skins in this wine.