José Mourinho likes his wine – we know he shared a bottle or two of good stuff (Barca Velha 1964 from the Douro and worth about £240) with Sir Alex Ferguson after the League Cup clash at Old Trafford, but having knocked Barcelona out of the Champion’s league, what should he drink next? Martin will be discussing Portuguese wines on the Sean Moncrieff Show on Friday March 11^th from 3.30pm onwards.

Portuguese wines have been something of a backwater for a long time until the last few years. Labels were Victorian in style and hard to read while wine styles were equally old fashioned. ‘Food wines’ was what experts would say of tannic, acidic fruitless reds and dull, flabby, fruitless whites. I’d rather have a Australian shiraz or a Chilean chardonnay is what the consumer would say.

That underperformance was a tragedy really, as it’s a country with huge potential. There’s a wealth of weirdly named indigenous grapes with names that translate as ‘dog strangler’, ‘French squire’, ‘fly droppings’, ‘small parrot’ and ‘bastardo’ which needs no translation.

Where once there was only Sadam Hussein’s favourite, Mateus Rosé or Vinho Verde plus those difficult hard redsusually labelled Dao or Bairrada, now newer styles and regions are emerging. 

For reds the Douro Valley, better known for Port, seems to have taken the lead and especially with the Touriga Nacional grape.  José’s favourite Barca Velhas has been around a long time but now others join it like Dirk Niepoort’s Vertente (Wicklow Wine Co.) or Quinta do Crasto and Quinta do Vale Maria (Approach Trade). 

Other exciting regions on the up include Alentejo, 150km south east of Lisbon which is where you’ll find Esporão a range of wines made by Australian David Baverstock. We’ll be tasting the white Esporão Reserva 2002 in studio, €15.85, 88/100 (importers Approach Trade). It’s made from Roupeiro, Arinto and Antao Vaz (Who? What? –see what I mean about Portuguese grapes?). 

Closer to the capital regions like Palmela, Setubal and and Estramuda are starting to make supple fruity reds. One that should catch José’s eye is Quinta de Figo, Searsons, €9.50, 86/100 a supple winning red with something of the galactico about it. Sadly this is not owned by footballer Luis Figo, but in the local lingo Figo translates as Fig  and Quinta as farm or estate, so it’s called Fig Farm Red really, but I love the label.

If José wants to celebrate with fizz he should stick to genuine French Champagne, I’m sure he can afford it, rather than the local fizz which has never impressed me or maybe a few bottles of local beers Super Bock or Sagres would be the footballer’s choice.

Finally down south, on the Algarve, Cliff Richard has a holiday home and vineyard where the busy Mr. Baverstock makes a wine for him called Vida Nova. It’s not sold in Ireland but it is in England where it flies off the shelves. Perhaps Joe Dolan or Daniel O’ Donnell could be persuaded to invest in a vineyard.  

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