Euro 2024 ‘Flavours from Home’: We head down to Arch 13 at Connollys Wine Bar to find out more about the traditional Portuguese Port wine ahead of the Euros.
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00:00As Euros are fast approaching, we're on a culinary journey across Europe right here in our city.
00:05Today we'll delve into the culinary world of Portugal as they qualified for the Euros.
00:10We're at Arch 13 Wine Bar in Jura Porta, known for its exceptional selection of wines.
00:17At this wine bar, our attention will be on Portuguese port wine.
00:21This wine is not just a drink, it's a celebration of Portuguese culture and tradition.
00:27Arch 13 at Farnese Wine Bar has been a purveyor of fine wine since 1906.
00:32The bar itself opened in May 2018, marking a new chapter in offering a relaxed and informal atmosphere to enjoy wine and well-paid.
00:42To know more about the Portuguese port wine, we spoke with the bar's wine expert, Ed.
00:46Port is almost the great wine that England has influenced.
00:50The history goes back to about 1680 odd, and then you have the Treaty of Methuen in 1783.
00:55It's a fortified wine from the Douro Valley in Portugal.
00:58It comes in a myriad of variabilities.
01:01You do get white port, we have some tawny, which is when it's aged in wood.
01:0480% of all port production is that.
01:06Then we have kind of ruby ports, which you get the LBVs you may have seen, crusted, single-quintas,
01:11and the full-bore lovely one that is full vintage port.
01:14That is more the English style.
01:16It's the stuff you get, well, if you're lucky, you get given when you're born and then you drink when you reach about 30.
01:22And it is superb.
01:24And it was indeed superb.
01:26The great selection of wines that I had the pleasure of tasting,
01:28including Graeme's 10-year-old and 20-year-old tawny port.
01:31The rich and lingering flavours of spice and raisin in these ports
01:35are undoubtedly the combination of selecting the finest fruits and careful process of ageing.
01:41To fully immerse myself in the wine-tasting experience of this Portuguese treasure,
01:45I engage in a ritual of looking,
01:47swirling,
01:49smelling and savouring.
01:52The complexity is getting more and more.
01:54As you say, look the world around you.
01:56It's not just a quick bang in your mouth.
01:58It's lingering.
02:00As seen, my preference leaned towards the 20-year-old tawny port.
02:03A taste that transports you to the wineyards of the Douro Valley,
02:07echoing the soul of Portugal in the heart of Birmingham.
02:10So the glass-poured to not Portugal qualifying 40-year-olds,
02:13I had to ask Ed what his prediction for Portugal would be.
02:17Portugal, rather elderly side, with Mr Ronaldo, who is from Madeira,
02:22so you can drink wine for the only born,
02:24and the violent man, which is Pepe.
02:26So I think their quarter-finals are the best.
02:29I reckon it's between France and Germany,
02:32and I wouldn't like to guess which way it will go.