2007 Alves de Sousa Douro Abandonado

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 94 points

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  1/5/2021 - WinewithAndy Likes this wine: 97 Points

  Well, I seem to have opened this at least 5 years early - although it's already drinking fantastically. Deep, deep garnet, with only the slightest hint of 13 years of ageing creeping in around the edges. An open nose of semi-dried dark cherry, juicy blackberry, dried thyme, and violet, mixing with some exquisite oak and the beginnings of something leathery. In the mouth, it's big but in perfect balance, with well-structured acidity and confident tannins. Great with a well-aged steak now, and it'll continue for a good few years - I might wait at least 2 before trying another from this case!

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  3/4/2018 - jkscully Likes this wine:

  This was fantastic! The wine starts a bit shy, but then comes alive in your mouth, with intense flavors of blueberry, cherry, violets, vanilla, and heavy doses of chocolate. Hints of balsamic vinegar, sandlewood, tar, and licorice, but thankfully, some of these less desierable Douro flavors are hidden in the background. Tannins coat the mouth with a luscious texture. Good acid to compliment the juicey purple fruits and chocolate. It’s difficult to imagine a Douro wine being better than this.
  
  According to the website, this is predominately Touriga Franca, touriga Nacional, and Sousão with about 20 other grapes making up the blend. Domingos and Tiago Alves de Sousa really want to stress Portuguese terroir and they do a nice job. The irst vintage of this was 2004. What a wine! I’ll be looking for more from them.
  
  I tasted a glass of this alongside a Finca Dofi Priorat. The flavor profiles were similar for both wines, but this was more chocolate and less spicey compared to the Priorat. I thought this was clearly the superior wine as it just had an intensity that was lacking in the Priorat. Both wines had violet flavors, for example, but the violet flavors were distinct and burst to life in this wine, whereas, they were muted and muddled in the Priorat.

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  12/10/2016 - alexisrs Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Fantástico. Potência em perfeito equilíbrio. Parecia um vinho jovem, apesar de seus 9 anos. Ainda ia muito longe. Complexidade marcante, persistência longa e saborosa. Adorei!!!!

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  8/11/2013 - hdantas Likes this wine: 96 Points

  750 ML
  14,5%
  Portugal
  
  Nice, fantastic wine. You need to open it two or three hours befor drink. And enjoy, enjoy... We enjoy with sheep. Great! Typical Portuguese! Great! And: you can leave it in cellar more years.

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  11/14/2012 - igaf wrote:

  The nose was somewhat unclean and unfocused, slightly leathery, not very intense, moderately fruity. Full, overpowering, bitter, spicy, charcoal-dominated palate, rather disintegrated at the moment. Long, pruney. Perhaps just needs more time.

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