Baga - The tough kid turns sweet

Very few Portuguese grape varieties come tripping off of the tongue, even off of the tongues of real serious oenophiles. Aside from the fact that Portugal has only recently begun to make some waves in the greater wine wolrd, the Portuguese wine culture is famous for its blending skills, and rightly so. In fact most Portuguese wines are blends, so while there are some “leading men” varieties, there are very few “one man shows”. The Baga grape is one of the exceptions (though we will see it blended in one of the recommended labels below).

Baga (which means “berry” in Portuguese) is nearly synonymous with the region from which it comes - Bairrada. Bairrada is located in north-central Portugal, bordering Dao on the east, and reaching almost to the Atlantic ocean in the west. The Baga variety accounts for over 90% of the total amount of black grapes grown and harvested in the region.

The variety is very thick-skinned as well as very vigorous (producing large amounts of foliage), but is quite sensitive to a common vine malady called powdery mildew, and despite its thick skins, is also fairly prone to rot in Bairrada’s cool, damp climate which is further exacerbated by its late ripening date. Baga’s wines are famous for their youthful “fire”, derived from the formidable levels of both acids and tannins present in the fruit as well as those tannins that are derived from the stems which in Bairrada are less commonly removed before maceration and fermentation. So much fire can Baga display that most of it has to be barrel aged for several years, and then further fined in the bottle for at times up to a decade or beyond depending on a given wine’s particular style and the quality of the vintage to really tame its “wild child” structure.

In the glass, as was mentioned above, Baga is a BEAR in its youth unless full de-stemming and a partial carbonic maceration is employed. But after the requisite stint of aging, Baga wines shed their tough shells, becoming deep and sweet. More than a few critics have likened well-aged Bairrada Baga to a slightly more rustic Barolo. The variety most often sports flavors and aromas of both red and black currants as well as an earthy mixed berry quality, and a general bold, powerful mouthfeel.

And thought there are a bevy of Baga growers and winemakers in Bairrada, the unchallenged doyen of the zone is a man that is known to be almost as prickly as the wines he makes: Luis Pato. Pato has been the unquestioned “point man” for the variety and the region for years, and his wines still dominate both the domestic and foreign markets in the Bairrada category.

Baga is undoubtedly a wine for meat, pairing especially well with Bairrada’s great culinary specialty, leitao (a roasted suckling pig served with a hot sauce called piri-piri), but it also works very well with barbecued beef or lamb dishes as well.

The first and the third Baga wines listed below are drinking quite well now. The second and fourth would benefit from a bit more cellaring. As always, if anyone picks some of these wines up, please post your tasting notes here as comments…

Luis Pato Baga Beiras

Luis Pato Bairrada Baga/Touriga Nacional blend

Caves Sao Joao Bairrada Reserva

Luis Pato Bairrada Vinhas Velhas