That Wine's From WHERE?

We went out to dinner at Ransome's Dock last night with some friends. I was the first to arrive and was informed that the rest of the party would be late, so I settled in to read the wine list over a glass of the house champagne, currently Joseph Perrier Cuvee Royale Brut. I really enjoyed the first few sips, but as I got further into the (extensive) wine list and as everyone grew later and later, I realised that the very tiny bubbles that were at first in my glass had completely disappeared. While it had a traditionally and enjoyably champagne-y flavour, I'm all about the bubbles, so this was disappointing.

Thankfully the rest of the party arrived and turned out to be a group of wine lovers, so we introduced them to a bottle of something interesting - a sparkling wine called Espumante 3B from Filipa Pato. We challenged the group to place the wine, and while everyone agreed that it wasn't French, and someone came close by guessing Spain, noone guessed that this wine is from Portugal. Yes, Portugal! It's a rather unique sparkling wine, both in that it's a blend of baga and bical grapes and in that the winemaker is female. We had tasted this wine at Ransome's Dock at a Portugese wine tasting several months earlier and were completely pleased and surprised by it. It's a very pleasant sparkling wine with nicely rounded and balanced fruit and acidity - one of our group likened it to a Sweet-Tart candy. The only down-side is that it has no finish, which is fine if you want a completely clean palate after you swallow, but which is a bit of a shame to me because the wine itself is so tasty. Not a really mainstream wine, but one that's definitely worth trying!