By Madame Escargot 
Something a bit different for us, a Wine Tasting evening.
Vitor Claro
Happy producer of Dominó wine
“Vitor Claro is a chef by training… Through cooking, he became fascinated with wine. … So when he discovered an old vineyard in northern Alentejo in 2010, it didn’t take much for him to take on a new challenge.
Soon Vitor was assisted in winemaking by his wife Rita and it became a family business. The vineyards with which the first steps were taken at the time are now also their property. They are located in the mountainous area north of Portalegre”
https://www.theportugalcollection.be/en_GB/producenten/vitor-claro
We booked for this event at dinner last Thursday, not knowing exactly what was involved. It was billed as a Wine Tasting and Tapas, with no ticket price given, nor any other details.
The ticket price turned out to be €35, including the tasting of 4 wines, accompanying 4 Tapas. The wines were a mystery to us, but we had a high level of confidence in the Tapas.
It turned out to be a fun event. Vitor describes himself as a wine Producer, and stresses that he is not a ine Maker. He has his own small vineyards, which are Organic, and also buys in grapes from neighbours (up to 5 Kilometres away), which are non-Organic.
He therefore talked about the growing and the picking of the grapes, taking us as far as the pressing and whether or not the pressings were left on the lees – no further than that.
I would like to be able to enthuse about the wines, but they were not honestly to our taste. Drinkable, but we won’t be rushing to order them. We both liked the first wine, the Sao Bento, best.
Our neighbours for the evening were a pair of Portuguese-resident Americans, and their adorable dog. We were kept entertained in the gaps between Vitor’s talks.
Our first Tapa was a delicious Ceviche of Bonito, tangy.
The second was a single, ultra crispy, spear of Tempura Asparagus. I could have happily eaten a plateful of these.
The third Tapa was a delicate tartlet of a thin and crispy pastry, filled with a Broad Bean puree.
Simply topped by a few strips of marinaded red peppers, and decorated with a pea flower.
Lovely.
To complete the Tapas, we were served an individual pizza.
The base was a beautiful sourdough, chewy and flavourful.
A homemade Pesto topped the dough, very punchy in flavour.
Strawberry? Well, at least it was not pineapple!
Dinner Menus were distributed thereafter. We did consider it, but decided to return at a quieter time.
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