Jose Mourinho, we’re told, left a £300 bottle of wine for Sir Alex Ferguson after the European Champions League match last month at which his Inter side managed to scrape a nil-nil draw with Man U. Presumably this wasn’t a poisoned chalice aimed at coaxing the wine-loving Sir Alex from the top footballing hot seat that Mourinho no doubt covets, but its very antithesis, namely a bottle of Barca Velha. As Vega Sicilia is to Spain and Grange to Australia, Barca Velha is Portugal’s ‘icon’ wine. It would be entirely in keeping with the jingoistic Mourinho that he should so generously donate not just one of the products of his own country and but its most expensive symbol.

No way, Jose

If it was the current release, he could have got the elegantly proportioned and still youthful 2000 vintage, for a ‘mere’ £100 a bottle from Castas, www.castas.co.uk, so maybe it was an older, rarer vintage, or perhaps even a magnum. Either way, Barca Velha is remarkable because it’s a red table wine made from Portugal’s native touriga franca, touriga nacional, tinta roriz and tinta câo grown the Douro Valley, a region best known for port. Casa Ferreirinha’s Fernando Nicolau de Almeida created Barca Velha in 1952, using the port grapes to make the region’s first high quality table wine and in five decades, it has only been made in 15 vintages, the most recent being the 2000.

Seeing the writing of a declining port market on the wall, the Portuguese have woken up to the fact that great table wines can be made from the native touriga nacional and its accomplices in the steep terraced vineyards overlooking the Douro River. Among the greatest at a recent tasting at the Portuguese Embassy in London were the 2005 Quinta da Romaneira, £30.50, Tanners, Shrewsbury (01743 234500), a beautifully crafted blend in which dark berry fruit flavours and spice mingle seamlessly and the majestic 2005 Quinta do Vale Meão, £40.99 - £44.99, Fareham Wine Cellar (01329 822733), Five Reasons Wine (01892 521222), another classic blend of the Douro’s port varieties whose liquorice spicy aromas presage a wine of intense depth of concentration and flavour framed by silky textures and freshness.

Eyebrows may be raised at such elevated prices but these would be great wines in anyone’s book. The roll call continues with the superb 2005 Poeira, around £28.30, Mill Hill Wines (020 8959 6754), Berry Bros & Rudd (0870 900 4300), a seriously elegant blend whose bright red fruit quality is reminiscent of the seductive liquid essence of mulberry and dark cherry, topped off by crisp damsony acidity; the superb 2005 Pintas, £21.49, Corney & Barrow (020 7265 2500), an old vine ‘field blend’ of 30 native grape varieties that exudes the autumn bonfire smokiness of oak, framing concentrated black cherry fruitiness and the sort of muscular power that only a robust roast suckling pig or its equivalent English staple, roast pork and cracking, could do justice to. Not forgetting the 2005 Quinta Do Vallado Touriga Naciona, £17.99, Waitrose selected branches and online, a finely wrought modern blend of textured damson and dark berry fruitiness.

Barca Velha

It needs another occasion to do justice to Portugal’s growing panoply of fine reds, from the Douro in the north, through Dâo and Bairrada in the centre of the country down to the searingly hot Alentejo in the far south. It’s worth pointing out at least that Dâo is one previously overshadowed region that’s starting to shine for its reds. From Alvaro Castro’s Quinta da Pellada, the seductive red-fruited elegant pinot noir-like 2005 PAPE, £18, www.castas.co.uk, min. order case of six plus £7.99 delivery, is running out fast. There’s great value to be had here too, like the 2005 Pena da Pato, £6.99, buy 2 = £5.99, Majestic, a vibrant blackberry fruit blend with succulence and bite. Or venture a little further south, and try the vanilla-infused loganberry and damson-lie 2006 Tinta da Anfora, Alentejo, £6.49, buy 2 = £5.19, Majestic, £5.99, Sainsbury’s. One for Sir Alex to return the special one’s favour with?

Something For the Weekend 14 March 2009

Under a Fiver

2008 Casillero del Diablo Shiraz Rosé, Concha y Toro.

Forget hothouse Spanish berries and enjoy instead the summer pudding fruitiness and aromatic power of this spring-like, new vintage Chilean pink, whose refreshing dry qualities make it an elegant food or sipping rosé. £4.66, down from £6.99, Sainsbury’s, until 17 March.

Under a Tenner

2005 Bourgogne Blanc, Buisson-Battault.

An affordable priced yet exceptional white burgundy thanks to a considerable degree of complexity and flavour from the stirring of the chardonnay lees in barrel, which brings leesy, mealy characters to the baked apple and honeyed fruit qualities. £9.99, Majestic.

Splash Out

2006 John Duval Entity Shiraz

Aromatically sweet and spicy, this deep-coloured, youthful Barossa Valley shiraz from the former winemaker of Penfolds Grange displays a pure quality of blackberry fruit tempered by pepper and spice and a supple, savoury character; drinking now though it will cellar nicely for 10 years. £17.95 - £20.99, Bennetts Fine Wines (01386 840392), Cooden Cellars (01323 649663), Noel Young Wines (01223 566744), The Secret Cellar (01892 537981).