Pair with Bevinars by Mark Oldman: Secrets of Portugal

You could pay a fortune to see one of Mark Oldman’s famous, “five-star” (Food & Wine) “wildly popular” (Aspen magazine) live seminars at the nation’s top food festivals or you can take this Bevinars virtual series for a fraction of the cost and from the comfort of your own living room. In his trademark style that Bon Appétit calls “winespeak without the geek,” award-winning author and renowned speaker Mark Oldman will discuss classic grapes and flavor profiles, how to decipher a label, food pairings, ageability, and more. But Mark’s presentations always have more: he fills each session with his trademark “nuggets” of useful insider information that you won’t find anywhere else.

SECRETS OF PORTUGAL
Portugal is so much more than Port, the delicious dessert wine for which the country is world famous. Portugal’s dry wines – both white and red – offer some of the best quality for your money in the entire world of wine.

We will consider a range of key subjects, including how a flood of new investment and talent are rejuvenating many of Portugal’s growing zones, which wines best reflect their region’s terroir, which indigenous grape varieties are the most important to know, and how and why Portugal’s ancient winemaking techniques have persisted.

We will start with the perfect aperitif, Vinho Verde, which is priced for overindulgence and about as far from an oaky Chardonnay as you can get. We then move to the Douro and Alentejo, where the dry reds benefit from prime volcanic soils, hot days with markedly cooler nights, and vertiginous hillsides. We then shift gears to explore the many manifestations of Port, which will enrapture you with its lush aromas and taste.

In additional to the featured wines being presented, Mark will clue you into other tempting Portuguese wines, including Madeira and red wine from Dão.

Please visit bevinars.com to view upcoming class dates and to register. Registration is $55 per household/Zoom link or $176 (20% off) for the full four-week course.

Four featured wines, one bottle each representing this style:

• Vinho Verde
• Dry Portuguese Red - Douro
• Dry Portuguese Red - Alentejo
• Port wine

The specific selection of wine, and vintage, can vary state to state but will always be fitting of the style required to best enjoy the class. All wines have been personally approved by Mark.

About Mark Oldman
Known for his singular ability to unravel wine’s complexities with a potent blend of knowledge, entertainment, and imagination, Mark Oldman is one of the country’s top wine personalities and founder and CEO of Bevinars. He is author of several award-winning wine books that are considered the best of their kind, including the IACP-Award-winning How to Drink Like a Billionaire and Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine. Mark’s long-standing invitations to the country’s top food festivals and consistently sold-out appearances there attest to his position as one of food world’s most popular speakers. And when Amazon or Estee Lauder or dozens of other blue-chip companies need a wine expert to enthrall audiences, they turn to Mark. You might say that Mark has perfected the ability to distill complex subjects into enlightening, easily digested insights. Before turning to wine full-time, Mark cofounded and ran the career portal Vault.com based on exactly this approach of discerning demystification. And as a former trustee and three-time graduate of Stanford University, Mark has long been dedicated to education at its highest level.