In February of this year I was invited to participate in an annual tasting with the Revista do Vinhos editors and a number of other invited guests and journalists. Surprisingly, I was the only American in the group of 40. I was especially humbled to be tasting alongside Jose Penin, who has been the leading critic of Iberian wines for more than forty years.
Nuno Pires and his team had already filtered through thousands of wines to present the best 65 wines of the year among reds, whites, rose, and sweet and fortified wine categories. Our task was to blind taste these 65 wines to determine the Top 10 of 2024. It was an excellent tasting, especially given the setting of the ornate Arabic room and the background classical jazz. Since almost all of the wines were already 90+ rated quality candidates, the wines were of high level too. This makes for a much more enjoyable tasting experience.
Greg Martellotto with Jose Penin of Guia Penin
The top wines with a 95+ rating from my perspective really stood above the rest.
The following day, there was a gala dinner at the British Factory House, a private club with only twenty or so members—all of whom own port wine houses. Dating from 1790, it must be one of the oldest and smallest private clubs in Europe. Adrian Bridge of the Fladgate Partnership was our host, and we ate some excellent roasted cod with greens and a lovely blue cheese with port.
Fittingly, I awarded Ricardo Freitas of Barbeito winery in Madeira the award for #2 Fortified wine of the year called “O Americano Malvasia 50 years”. The #1 fortified wine of the year was from Jose Maria de Fonseca for his Moscatel de Setubal from 1924. (BHW loves the wines from this producer and they can be found here).
Alves de Sousa in Douro won the award for the #1 red wine of Portugal in 2024. I first met Domingos and his son Thiago at their home for a memorable dinner in 2006. The wines from this estate deserve to be in the discussion among the best in all of Portugal.
Greg Martellotto with Domingos Alves de Sousa, producer of the #1 Red wine of Portugal in 2024.
Other wines to watch are the interesting white wines from Azores. This requires “heroic” farming and some of the wines are available at $150-400 per bottle given the tiny yields.
The evening ended with a lovely singer belting out American pop songs and a conga line parading around the staid palace dining room.
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