2007 Alves de Sousa Douro Reserva Pessoal

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 90.3 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View forceberry's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/11/2023 - forceberry wrote: 92 Points

  A blend of +20 different varieties (mainly Tinta Amarela, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão and Touriga Nacional) from a 80-yo plot within Quinta da Gaivosa vineyard. This is a special Garrafeira version of Quinta da Gaivosa wine, released only from exceptional vintages and only with minimum 7 years of aging. Minuscule production. 14,5% alcohol. Tasted blind.
  
  Quite dense, opaque and slightly evolved blackish-red color. The nose feels dark-toned and somewhat meaty with savory aromas of ripe dark forest berries and tobacco, some woody tones, a little bit of roasted game, light licorice root tones, a hint of earth, a sweeter touch of almost raisiny fruit and a toasty whiff of mocha oak. The wine feels dense, sinewy and quite muscular on the palate with a full body and spicy, somewhat extracted and pretty ripe flavors of juicy dark berries, some leathery tones, a little bit of licorice root and phenolic spice, light gravelly mineral tones, oaky hints of vanilla and cloves and a sweeter touch of wizened figs. The overall feel is balanced and quite structure-driven with its high acidity and very ample yet not too aggressive or tough tannins. The finish is ripe, grippy and rather ripe with a long and powerful aftertaste of juicy dark berries like blueberries and boysenberries, some woody tones, a little bit of licorice root and pipe tobacco, light sweeter plummy tones, a hint of gravelly minerality and a sweeter touch of toasty oak spice.
  
  A big, quite robust and still very balanced Douro red that is starting to close on its plateau of maturity - and also that seems to have benefited much from additional aging. Compared to the previous bottle that I tasted 1½ years ago, this bottle showed more sense of flavor harmony as the oaky tones seemed here much more integrated, instead the wine having its more savory and slightly meaty evolved tones more in the limelight. Curiously the wine also seemed to come across as more structured with greater emphasis on its tannic structure, but that might be just because of the stuff we drank or ate before either this wine or the bottle we tasted 1½ years ago. Anyways, this seemed like a lovely bottle that might not improve that much with further aging but will at least keep for many, many years more. Good stuff. Priced somewhat according to its quality at 55€.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View forceberry's profile
  • Report Issue

  7/16/2021 - forceberry wrote: 88 Points

  A blend of +20 different varieties (mainly Tinta Amarela, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão and Touriga Nacional) from a 80-yo plot within Quinta da Gaivosa vineyard. This is a special Garrafeira version of Quinta da Gaivosa wine, released only from exceptional vintages and only with minimum 7 years of aging. Minuscule production. 14,5% alcohol. Tasted blind.
  
  Dense, fully opaque and still very youthful plummy red color. Ripe, concentrated and moderately sweetish nose with brooding aromas of dark plums and boysenberries, some coffee oak and vanilla, a little bit of Bourbon caramel, light blueberry tones, a floral hint of violets and a spicy touch of woody oak. The wine is dense, ripe and juicy on the palate with a very full body and concentrated flavors of plums and sweet bilberries, some mocha oak, light savory notes of meat, a little bit of boysenberry jam, oaky hints of milk chocolate and vanilla and a developed touch of wizened figs. The overall feel is quite extracted and even somewhat chewy, with an impressive structure to keep the balance in check: the wine is quite moderately high in acidity with ample and still moderately grippy tannins. The ripe finish is bold and very concentrated with some tannic grip and lengthy, extracted flavors of sweet dark fruits and boysenberries, some raisiny tones, a little bit of savory wood spice, light toasty notes of caramel and mocha, a sweet hint of dried dates and a perfumed touch of violets.
  
  A big and powerful blockbuster with lots of concentrated, sunny fruit, extraction and oak. The overall feel is impressively balanced for such a huge wine - thanks to its enjoyably tightly-knit structure - but the wine isn't really up my alley, due to its quite pronounced oak influence. Fortunately the wine is still relatively youthful for its age, and despite its slightly evolved nuances I can see it improving easily for another decade or so. I really hope the oakier nuances integrate better with the fruit - at least there is still good cellaring potential left here. Maybe a bit pricey for the quality at 55€.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Lype's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/6/2019 - Lype Likes this wine:

  A Tinta Amarela, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão, Touriga Nacional et al blend, promising open nose filled with plums, figs and classic claret features, the palate fulfills the promise and follows the nose offering also eucalyptus, violets, sour dark berries, hints of vanilla, attractive cold tones, reminiscent of a right bank Bordeaux. The overall freshness, good acidity together with claret type aromas make this a very balanced and beautiful wine, drinks excellently now but will last.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Lype's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/23/2019 - Lype Likes this wine:

  Attractive open nose, the palate is temptingly fruity, complex aromatics, eucalyptus, dark velvety tones and integrated tannins, drinking very well but will develop. The previous two bottles were better since this bottle had overripe apple core flavours and the wine was developed beyond its 12 years of age. In any case, a very good wine but not the best bottle.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.