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Herdade do Esporão Colheita Tinto 2017

Esporão Colheita Tinto 2017

A delightful blend that features Aragonez, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Touriga Franca, Esporão 2017 Colheita Tinto is made from organically-grown grapes from the winery’s estate. Pigéage is accomplished in large concrete vats. Plums, black cherries, and vanilla round out the nose. It’s quite dry on the palate, with structured, chewy tannins. Minerality resonates against a backdrop […]

Herdade do Rocim Olho de Mocho Reserva Branco 2014

Herdade Do Rocim Alentejo Olho de Mocho Reserva Branco 2014

The color of burnished gold, the 2014 Herdade do Rocim Olho de Mocho Reserva Branco offers up nuanced, complex aromas of quince paste, lemon curd, clover honey, marzipan, and golden raisins. At this stage in development, it’s softly textured—aging in terracotta and cement amphorae, as well as the presence of lees during aging, has graced […]

Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port 2011

Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port 2011

There’s poetry, pure poetry in Taylor Fladgate’s 2011 vintage port; plum, blackberry, espresso, just-baked spice cake, Madagascar Vanilla, sweet tobacco, Chinese Five Spice, and white pepper bedeck the nose. Round and supple on entry, with sumptuous plums and blackberries perched at the fore-palate and framed by cashmere-like, well-integrated tannins. Black tea, dried orange peel, and […]

Adega da Cartuxa Évora Colheita Tinto 2013

Adega da Cartuxa Évora Colheita Tinto 2013

Ruby hued, the 2013 Cartuxa Évora Colheita Tinto is, at least for this writer, more expressive on the second day, and is deeply perfumed with notes of Japanese plums, blueberries, balsam wood, and exotic spice. Softly textured on the palate with lovely purity of fruit, couched in black tea tannins, this traditional Alentejo blend of […]

Herdade do Esporão Esporão Reserva Tinto 2014

Herdade do Esporão Esporão Reserva Tinto 2014

Another excellent vintage from Esporão, the 2014 Reserva Tinto is a blend of Alicante Bouschet, Aragonez, Trincadeira, and Cabernet Sauvignon aged in French and American oak for 12 months. The nose is poetic: anise, violets, cigarette pack foil (a very specific aroma, my mother was a heavy smoker) black raspberry, and black cherry. And while […]

Taylor’s Chip Dry White Port NV

Taylor's Chip Dry White Port NV

Tasted at Taylor’s visitor’s center in Porto, the Chip Dry White carries a bit more discernible sweetness than the other dry white Ports I’d sampled that day. It’s aged for several years in casks, giving it an oxidative style and subtle nuttiness. Fresh and crisp on the palate, and laden with citrusy, notes, lemon oil […]

Herdade do Esporão Douro Minas Quinta dos Murças 2015

Herdade do Esporão Douro Minas Quinta dos Murças 2015

From the steeply terraced hillsides of the Douro is this classic and expressive blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Francisca, Tinta Roriz, and Tinto Cão. Layered aromas of plums and black cherries form the foundation, with lively spice and incense notes gliding over the top. On the palate, fruit is restrained by mouth-coating tannins and […]

Herdade Do Esporão Monte Velho Tinto 2014

Herdade Do Esporão Monte Velho Tinto 2014

An open-knit blend of 40% Aragonez, 35% Trincadeira, 20% Touriga Nacional, and 5% Syrah, this extraordinarily budget-friendly Portuguese red from Monte Velho offers pungent aromas of tart red berries, cranberries, earth and a sort of feral edge usher in a wine with brightness…red berries carry through until they crescendo, revealing an understory of fine tannins, […]

Aphros Vinhão Tinto 2013

Aphros Vinhão Tinto 2013

Sauvage is the word that comes to mind when describing this singular and biodynamically farmed, wild ferment Vinhão. Aromas of smoky plum and earth are rendered more complex by a sort of feral, animal quality that persists on the palate as well. A bold streak of acidity creates a sense of tension to sour cherry […]

Quinta do Noval Porto Colheita Tawny 2000

Quinta do Noval Porto Colheita Tawny 2000

The 2000 Quinta do Noval Porto Colheita Tawny is superb, showing warm and welcoming notes of caramel, dried fruit, honey, sultana along with a pinch of toast. The mind immediately jumps to pairings like stilton, Roquefort, or dried fruit, though, surprisingly the staff at Noval recommend trying it with fresh carrot, unpeeled. I love the […]

CHRISTINE HAVENS
McMinnville, OR

christine@christine-havens.com