This is a gorgeous wine made from a blend of Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz in the Dão region. The nose shows spicy cinnamon, oak and vanilla notes with prunes, currants, raisins and flowery accents. It’s quite funky and rustic but enthralling in its unique profile. In the mouth look for sweet, rounded fruit with liquorice, cherry, dark chocolate and gritty tannins followed by espresso notes on the finish. Very nice. Try with mushroom risotto.
Medium garnet, with the expected vintage Port sediment. Booming nose of quince, figs and cedar. Tastes of luscious stewed berries and plums; complex and interesting. The alcohol level is quite high; drink this at home.
A well-priced opportunity to try some different varietals, like the Touriga Nacional in this blend. Medium-deep American Beauty red, with a promising fine-particle haze. Delivers intense pipe tobacco, licorice and strawberry-jam aromas. Medium-bodied, dark cherry flavours; still-prominent tannins, tastes less complex than that wonderful nose suggests. At its best now.
You won’t have to wait for a decade for this to come into balance. Dense purple in colour, it has a smoky, blackberry and vanilla-oak nose; full in the mouth, chunky mouthfeel with blackberry and dark chocolate flavours.
Made from Castelão and Trincadeira, trodden by foot in traditional stone agars. Clear medium-deep cherry red. A powerful, complex, grapey nose leaps out of the bottle and is discernible well away from the glass, including influences of instant coffee, smoke, molasses, tea and fig. Surprisingly, the taste is of fresh mixed berries. The tannins are smooth, the acidity bright. Best now, before the fruit fades.
Interesting aromatics reveal damson plum, cinnamon, clove and herbal scents, shifting to sweet ripe red fruits in the mouth. Medium weight, nicely balanced with lingering plummy and spicy notes on the finish.
At this time of the year it’s port season. This innovative style is lighter than a Late Bottled Vintage but there’s no sacrificing intensity of flavour. A nose of blackcurrants, smoke and tar gives way to more elegant flavours of raspberry and plum on the palate.