A Fine Portuguese Dinner for a Fine Portuguese Wine - Cedro Do Noval

A fellow wine lover, Alex Michas, tipped me off to this delicious Portuguese wine. It has been waiting in my cellar for weeks. But I just could not open this bottle until I had just the right meal to show its fully beauty. Well last Saturday evening the moment arrived. 

We made a wonderful Portuguese tapas feast with an amazing chickpea salad, picante chorizo over toast rounds, and just out of the sea seared tuna over greens with Nicoise like accompaniments. Dessert was spiced pecans with Medjool dates and of course a fine dry sherry.

The wine called Cedro Do Noval is produced in the famed Douro region of Portugal by Christian Seely, of Quinta do Noval with the grapes Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão, and Syrah.

It is "Very pure tasting, with elegant red cherry, plum and smoked meat flavors. Raspberry, olive and savory herb notes fill the chiseled finish. Shows real pedigree with fine tannins and plenty of power.” 92 Points Wine Spectator

I found this very simple but very tasty Portuguese Chickpea Salad on a site called  epicurean.com. We bought the chickpeas (garbanzo beans) at Trader Joe's, and used the good sun-dried tomatoes we get there as well. 

The recipe calls for an entire head of roasted garlic and white Balsamic vinegar, cumin, salt, and pepper and fresh parsley. The combination of flavors rhymed amazing well and offered a perfect pallet for the first sips of our wine.

Taking a turn for a punget dish we made a Picante Chorizo over Portuguese roll toast rounds

This dish was suddenly improvised on the fly when we realized the Palacios Chorizo we always love were the picante not the mild we usually buy. I had some Portuguese rolls in the freezer, they are great for sandwiches. To mellow the hot flavors I sliced and toasted the rolls and then poured the sizzling Chorizo meat and juices over the toast.  Delicious. 

We had found beautiful fresh tuna at the Montclair Farmers Market and adapted a Salad Nicoise recipe to Portuguese flavor with a variation of herbs, olives and olive oil.    

The wine, while very robust and rich, still gave space to the lighter flavors of this dish.

Jancis Robinson describes it well "A blend of 30% Touriga Nacional, 30% Touriga Franca, 30% Syrah and 10% Tinta Roriz. Sweet black cherry fruit with an almost port-like sweetness, though the fruit is much lighter. Very soft (apparently the influence of Douro-grown Syrah) with a touch of vanilla on the finish. Easy, gentle."