2018 Herdade Barranco do Vale Castelão Reserva

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 68 points

• Options

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

  11/9/2021 - forceberry wrote: 68 Points

  100% Castelão from 20-yo vineyards. Aged for 12 months on the lees. 13,5% alcohol, 0,6 g/l residual sugar, 4,68 g/l acidity, VA 0,61 g/l and pH 3,74.
  
  Moderately translucent cherry-red color with a thin, clear rim. Ridiculously overdone, sweet and candied nose with intense aromas of pine tar-flavored candies and lifted menthol notes, followed by heady notes of cloves and vanilla extract, some figgy fruit, light wizened black cherry nuances and vague hints of very ripe dark berries. There's some fruit here, but the exact nuances just get badly overwhelmed by the oak aromatics. The wine is soft, sweet-toned and heavily oak-driven on the palate with a medium body and lush flavors of clove-driven Christmas spices, tar-flavored candies, some vanilla, light lifted, green notes of menthol, fennel and peppermint, a little bit of overripe strawberry and a hint of licorice. The acidity feels quite modest and the relatively light tannins don't bring much firmness to the wine. The finish is rich, sweet-toned in oak aromatics and gently grippy with rather long flavors of cloves, vanilla and other mulled wine spices, some notes of pine tar, a little bit of raspberry jam, light spicy notes of woody oak and a hint of overripe strawberry.
  
  Ugh, this was pretty horrible for my taste. Although the wine is supposed to be a regular Vinho Regional from Algarve, this drank more like a mulled wine where somebody just forgot the sugar. The heavily overdone, sweet oak aromatics overwhelm most of the fruity characteristics and what little one can make out of the wine are so sweet-toned they feel more jammy and marmaladey than fresh and precise. Structurally the wine is found wanting. Although the wine is very youthful and primary right now, it really doesn't seem to hold much promise for future and I doubt any amount of cellaring would make this wine any more interesting. Waste of money at 11,47€.

  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.