Herdade do 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
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 […]
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
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 […]
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, […]
Herdade do Esporão Esporão Reserva 2013
A brawny, if slightly gamey and wild blend of Alicante Bouschet, Aragonez, Trincadeira, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2013 Esporão Reserva Tinto is all plums, spice, vanilla and earthiness. In the mouth, it really shows it’s heft, with equal doses of tart sour cherry and raw cranberry-esqe acidity dowsed in firm tannins and a bit of […]