Nativa Magazine > Gastronomy

Holiday season is here – now what?

Holiday season is here – now what?

If there is a time when we linger at the table, this is it. There’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, work lunchs and dinners, familly and friends gatherings and many more events that suggest good meals and wines and olive oils up to the occasion. For those who like to host or to surprise, we share some tips to make a difference.

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Monte Velho Red
Monte Velho is ‘every occasion’ wine for its gastronomic potential. Fresh, with aromas and flavours of red fruits, it pairs well with poultry plates like the traditional turkey, seasoned with aromatic herbs and citrics.

Oven baked meats like goat kid are also good option to surprise. Since it is a tender and buttery meat, that almost crumble in the mouth, it asks for a less complex wine like this.

To finish a meal, try this wine with a traditional Christmas dessert in Portugal: filhós, a fritture sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

Esporão Selecção Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This olive oil is harmonious, persistent and well balanced with a hint of spiciness that grows in the mouth and blends with dried fruit. It gives a nice final touch to a boiled codfish with potatoes, carrots and legumes.
Esporão Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Being a slightly spicy and bitter olive oil, with herbal aromas, it surprises when used to finish a dish of goat kid baked in the oven.
Esporão DOP Norte Alentejano Extra Virgin Olive Oil
It is a soft, very sweet and slightly spicy olive oil, which makes it perfect for a portuguese dish called ‘Roupa Velha’ (direct translation: old clothes). Though it may sound strange, it is a traditional and very popular recipe made from the boiled codfish leftovers (mentioned above).
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Quinta dos Murças Minas 2016
This bold wine is lively and fresh with well-integrated acidity, lending itself to more intensely flavoured dishes like oven-baked salted codfish and roast or fried octopus.

Codfish goes well with both red and white wine. A red is more suitable due to its unctuous body. However, some say that fish, whatever type, should be served with a fresher wine that balances the more intense flavours of the dish. So, we recommend pairing cod with Quinta dos Murças Minas, a fresh red with good acidity.

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Quinta dos Murças Porto Vintage
This is a concentrated port with plenty of lively fruit and the perfect foil for rich and intense cheeses like queijo da Serra or blue cheese, slightly offsetting the intense flavours and with the necessary structure to contrast with the cheese’s protein.

Port is always an excellent choice for the traditional portuguese christmas cake called ‘Bolo Rei’ (as in ‘King Cake’).

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Esporão Sparkling wine
To celebrate the New Year with something different, we recommend the sparkling wine, Espumante Esporão, with its citrus notes and elegant, intense palate. A good match for shellfish, traditional ‘sonhos’ (doughnut-like pastries) and dried fruit, or simply as an aperitif.
Other suggestions
Esporão Late Harvest with dates and bacon

Esporão 2 Castas 2016 with chargrilled salted cod

Assobio Red 2016 with roast turkey

Esporão Private Selection White 2015 with roast octopus

Esporão Canto do Zé Cruz 2013 or Quinta dos Murças Margem 2016 with roast turkey and stuffing

Esporão Private Selection Red 2012 with mini-toast and soft paste cheese

December 14, 2017
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Monte Velho White 2017

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Organic Olive Oil