Community Tasting Notes (10) Avg Score: 91.0 points

  • Dark fruit, red fruit, mint, pepper and chocolate Balanced, medium body +, good acidity, ripe tannins and medium-long finish with toast.

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  • A blend of Aragonez, Syrah and Alicante Bouschet, all varieties vinified separately. Aragonez and Syrah vinified in open-top fermenters with regular foot-trodden pigeage, Alicante Bouschet in closed fermenter with only regular pumpovers. Aged for 18 months in 228-liter French oak barriques (70% once used, 30% new). 14,5% alcohol, 2 g/l residual sugar, 6,71 g/l acidity, pH 3,61.

    Saturated and quite concentrated dark cherry red color with a hint of youthful purple hue. Permits a little bit of light through. Dense, concentrated and rather sweet-toned nose with rich, youthful aromas of ripe blackcurrants and boysenberries, inky tones, some vanilla oak, a little bit of blackberry jam, light notes of juicy dark plums, a perfumed hint of fragrant blue flowers and an oaky touch of milk chocolate. The wine is very full-bodied, concentrated and chewy on the palate with intense and still very youthful flavors of ripe blackcurrants and boysenberries, some sour red plums, a little bit of savory wood spice, light boysenberry jam tones, oaky hints of extracted bitterness and subtly greenish wood tones and a touch of vanilla. Contrasting the vintage 2012 that was tasted alongside, this wine feels even bigger and more concentrated, but according to the technical analyses, this vintage has slightly lower acidity than the 2012 vintage, yet the acidity manages to show through better here, lending some balance to the mouthfeel. However, the structure relies mostly on the ripe yet very assertive and firm tannins. The finish is dense, powerful and quite noticeably grippy with concentrated, youthful flavors of boysenberry jam, some plummy tones, a little bit of vanilla oak, light blackberry tones, oaky hints of bittersweet dark chocolate and toasted wood spice and a touch of inky character.

    A massively powerful powerhouse of a modernist Portuguese wine that feels remarkably similar to the vintage 2012, but whereas that particular vintage tasted more clumsy, monolithic and anonymous, this wine manages to show more sense of balance with very ripe yet vibrant, youthful fruit and slightly less conspicuous oak influence. Still a mere baby, this wine needs many more years before losing that excessively oaky modernist sheen and starting to show its best, but this wine performs noticeably better already when compared to the subsequent vintage. Priced according to its quality at 47€.

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  • Refined and classy nose, tight and closed palate, pickle, liquorice, powerful tannins, promising but requires cellaring.

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  • This wine always reminds me of Bordeaux, and all the time I open a bottle someone asks me if it's French. I'll take that as compliment to the wine. Full body, round, nice finish. Ready to drink. Got better after 30 min of air.

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  • Very Aromatic with lots of red fruit and menthol. Lovely balanced wine. Lots of tannin still there which gives this wine plenty of life ahead of it. However, it’s incredibly fresh with a lovely acidity. Very enjoyable.

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  • Aromatic and complex nose with rounding fruit, toasted bread, black olive, and sappy, buttery oak. Flavourful, warming and assertive palate with a great sense of minerality. Long, dynamic finish.
    5/5

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  • Esporão Tasting (Proof - DC): Dark plum color. Concentrated on the nose, dark plums and currants, pepper and mint – lots going on here. Awesome balance on the palate with dry tannins and vibrant acidity. Dark currants, saucy plums, the fruit is mixed with spiced tea, pepper, eucalyptus, mint. Cedar and coffee are woven in well, this is bold but elegant. 12 months in all new French oak and 18 months in bottle before release. It’s a big, New World-style but there’s a lot of freshness, which makes this wine really attractive. A blend of red grapes including Arogonez, Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvignon.

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  • Rubi violáceo muito profundo, quase negro. Aroma de frutas negras confitadas, defumados, tostados, tabaco e chocolate meio amargo. Na boca é intenso, médio a encorpado com taninos mastigáveis. Final persistente e condimentado. As cegas parece um bom syrah ou mesmo um bom shiraz australiano. Tem bom frescor mas um conjunto que não é necessariamente elegante, o que não é exatamente um defeito em se tratando de um alentejano. Prazeroso e em estilo internacional.

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  • Portuguese Table wines (Ray's Home): Inky purple in color, ruby at the rim. The nose is tight at first. With air, it shows milk chocolate, black raspberries and dust. On the palate, it comes off as tart. Thick tannins. With a bit of air, it presents a chocolate black raspberry milk shake. Black cherries on the finish. By the end of the night, it is showing much better as it all starts to integrate. Clearly a fair amount of oak here, but I think a few more years cellaring and this should come together nicely if that is an issue now. Probably score a point or two higher.

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  • Very modern style, technically impeccable. Hard to guess where this was coming from...

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