Nuri

Spiced Sardines in Tomato

Price: $6.95
Tasting notes

The tomato sauce here is not a filler — it is a house recipe Pinhais has used since 1920, built around cloves, bay, and piri-piri with vegetables (cucumber, carrot) adding texture. The sardines themselves are firm and meaty, sourced at the Matosinhos fish market on the day of catch and vapor pre-cooked before canning, which deepens their flavor compared to sardines that are packed raw.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
TomatoCloveBlack PepperSea Salt
  • Style: Spiced sardines in tomato sauce; wild-caught Sardina pilchardus; 125g tin; no preservatives or additives
  • Grapes & Terroir: Sardina pilchardus; wild-caught Atlantic, Matosinhos fish market; ingredients: sardines, tomato pulp, olive oil, cloves, black pepper, bay, cucumber, chili, carrot, salt
  • Winemaking: 37-step hand production; vapor pre-cooked; minimum 90-day rest in can before hand-wrapping and labeling
  • Serving: Serve at room temperature or gently warmed; open and plate directly; pairs with a squeeze of lemon
  • Pairing: Crusty bread with garlic, pasta, grain bowls, potato salad, crispbread with butter
  • Similar To: For fans of Ortiz anchovies, Conservas Pinhais mackerel, or any high-quality tinned fish from Iberian canneries

Nuri is a brand of Conservas Pinhais & Cª Lda., a cannery founded in 1920 on Avenida Menéres in Matosinhos, a coastal municipality immediately north of Porto on the Atlantic. The cannery remains one of the few canning operations in Portugal still following a fully traditional production method across all of its output. Production involves 37 steps, from sourcing sardines (Sardina pilchardus) at the Matosinhos fish market each morning to vapor pre-cooking, hand-placement in cans, and hand-wrapping each tin.

The spiced tomato sauce version uses a recipe kept at the cannery since 1920. Ingredients are sardines, tomato pulp, olive oil, cloves, black pepper, bay leaf, cucumber, chili, carrot, and salt. No preservatives or additives. The spice in this variety comes primarily from piri-piri pepper and cloves rather than pure heat, making it distinctly aromatic rather than simply hot. Once canned, the product rests for at least 90 days before the tins are hand-wrapped and labeled.

Annual production is limited by the seasonal availability of sardines and the pace of hand-processing. The cannery sources fish directly from the Matosinhos market on the day of catch. Each 125g (4.4 oz) tin is gluten-free and non-GMO, with no added preservatives.

Eat straight from the tin over toasted bread rubbed with garlic, with a squeeze of lemon and sliced shallots. Toss with cooked pasta, using the tomato sauce as the base and finishing with fresh parsley. Works well layered into a grain bowl with roasted peppers and a soft-boiled egg.

Wine details

Dry/Sweet:, Dry
Wine Type:, Pantry
Wine Style:,
Grapes:,
Farming:, Conventional
Vintage:,
Alcohol:,
Country:, Portugal
Region:, Matosinhos, Porto District
Appellation:,
Bottle Size:, 125g (4.4 oz)
Sugar Level:, Zero Added Sugar

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.


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If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Spiced Sardines in Tomato
$6.95

Producer profile

Nuri

Conservas Pinhais & Cª Lda. was founded on 23 October 1920 in Matosinhos, Portugal, on Avenida Menéres. The Pinhais brand name was registered from 1926 onward. The cannery has been operated by three generations of the same family. Nuri is the company's flagship brand, in commercial distribution since at least 1935.

The production process involves 37 documented steps. Sardines are purchased at the Matosinhos fish market on the morning of the catch, brined in sea salt, vapor pre-cooked on wire griddles, cleaned and beheaded by hand, placed in tins, filled with sauce or oil, sealed, and then rested for a minimum of 90 days before hand-wrapping and labeling. Eight specialist wrappers work full-time at the cannery, each wrapping approximately 1,400 tins per day. The factory is internationally certified and meets food safety standards required for export markets.

Wine region

Matosinhos, Porto District, Portugal

Matosinhos sits on the Atlantic coast immediately north of Porto, at the mouth of the Leixoes commercial port. For much of the 20th century it was the largest sardine fishing port in the world, at one point home to 54 canneries. The town's municipal fish market, Mercado de Matosinhos, still operates daily with fresh catches from the Atlantic delivered each morning.

The cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Portuguese Atlantic coast produce sardines (Sardina pilchardus) with notably high fat content, particularly in the summer and autumn months when the fish are at peak condition. Pinhais sources its sardines from this market directly, canning only during periods when fish quality meets their standards — production stops entirely on days when no suitable catch is available.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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