A Red 'Green Wine'!? - Tinto Bom Vinho Verde

Having spent two days doing relentless wine tasting at RAW Fair and the London International Wine Fair, which is a really tough job but someone's got to do it (you're welcome world), you get to a point when everything you have tried all blends into one. It's a good sign if at the end of the day you can remember a small selection of the wines you have tasted because that way you know they really must have been good ones.

RAW, the fair for organic, biodynamic, natural, orgasmic and fantastic wines was an especially interesting event (I made the last two up). There were loads of crap wines that were clearly just using the whole natural thing as a selling point because the wine isn't good enough to speak for it's self, a bit like parents constantly making excuses for their shitty kids, but there were some really interesting wines at RAW and quite a lot that were new to me, one of these being a red called 'Tinto Bom' from the Vinho Verde region of Portugal.

Vinho Verde which is usually a white wine is something that I am familiar with and have really enjoyed in the past but the red was something I hadn't come across, so I was keen to taste. The nice thing about it was that it still had a very Vinho Verde-ish-ness to it (shut up, that so is a word), it was light and very crisp, with the almost spritzy/fizzy feel that you expect from the white. The difference is that it was packed full of red fruit flavours and had nice, grippy tannin that wasn't too strong but actually worked nicely with the refreshing Vinho verde style, while helping to bring a nice structure to the wine. It is made from 100% Tinta Nacional, a grape variety that is native to Portugal and the wine is aged in steel vats, which helps to boost the very fresh, clean style. Plus, it's organic, but who actually cares?

It's always nice to find something new in the wine-world and this sort of thing is exactly what the RAW Fair is all about - giving some exposure to the people who are doing something a bit different.

If you are looking for something new, that you probably won't have seen before, you can get a bottle of 2010 Tinto Bom from Portuguese Story for £10.50 - even if it's not a style you would usually go for, I would really recommend getting a bottle because it's a wine that will broaden anyone's horizons.

Have you tried anything a little different lately? We want to know about it so get in touch either by commenting below or or our twitter and facebook pages.