May 14, 2022 - Beautiful fruit that teetered on ripe and raisinated. Color would trick you into thinking it was a wine half it’s age. Tannin is soft and integrated. Could go awhile longer but drinking beautifully. Gorgeous.
June 27, 2021 - A very pleasant surprise. Scorched earth character blew off after a few minutes to reveal a fruit-forward, delicious, soft wine. Having virtually no experience with older Portuguese reds other than port, I would have guessed a 20 year old Napa cab from a newer school producer if blinded on it. Ripe plum, rich fruit, some earth.
May 3, 2020 - Wow. Just wow. Decanted 2 hrs ahead of time. Most fruit has mellowed but still wonderfully bodied. Amazing how thats still the case 14 yrs in. Super smooth and incredibly tasty. Had it w steak, couldnt help myself and drank the whole bottle within an hour w the mrs helping w just one glass. Super excited for the 8 i have left.
November 29, 2019 - Delicious, tannins still giving it structure. Still berries on the nose but the fruit def tamed down. Lots of secondary flavors.
Acidity makes it harder to enjoy on its own. Also opened a 2015 of the same wine and people found that more approachable. Screams to be had w steak, would be phenomenal.
July 28, 2019 - in a good place. lots of secondary notes. tannins are well integrated, still has the stuffing to go another 10 years but why wait?
June 7, 2018 - Lets address the elephant in the room first. This is a vintage that many critics panned as being not good. But what many of them forget is the Douro is a big place with tons of micro climates. So even in the tough years someone almost always makes a good wine. Decanted 3 hours, this still has fresh berries, solid acidity, light tannins in the background - mostly showing up on the finish, tar, and now the oak has fully integrated and isn't noticeable anymore. That said, this doesn't possess quite the complexity or long finish as some of the Reserva's from top vintages. But you'd be hard pressed to guess blind this was a 12 year old wine from an off-vintage since it shows much younger overall. As for drinking window...while it's still on the youthful side that slight lack of complexity and depth will affect it's aging and I think it's drinking at it's best right now and should hold here for a few more years before the secondary stages kick in enough to offset that slight lack of overall complexity and depth I mentioned. As a side, I've consumed over two cases of this since its release.
91 Points
July 26, 2017 - Really good!
May 4, 2017 - Started out thin and weird,I thought it was a bad bottle...couple of hours later turned in to a very nice wine.
March 4, 2017 - Down to my last bottle of 2006 so I need to make it last haha. Actually, I received my Coravin this week so I was able to pour just one glass to enjoy with dinner while keeping the cork intact ��. Curious to see what happens in a month or so.
Right out of the bottle I could enjoy the complicated bouquet this wine displays. Once the glass was able to warm up from cellar temperature, this wine was ready to enjoy with identical notes to previous bottles.
January 18, 2017 - Very interesting, and evolving over a couple of hours, and over the next 24. Blueberries and red berries, spice, sandalwood, a little green walnut tannin bitterness, with salty, saline minerality in the finish. Big, dark-fruited, spicy attack. On open, it is rather earthy and "gritty," but that fades with time, showing more fruit and spice. The tannins are somewhat unripe, but overall structure is quite nice, with medium-low tannin and acid. Drinking well now, though should hold for another couple of years.