NV Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo "CLA Special Reserve" Port

[Bradley Bogdan]

Deep , dark ruby color, befitting a young ruby reserve. Big wide honking cork was in perfect shape in the squat modern bottle.

Nose is effusive of every dark candy fruit, certainly bordering on, if not being over, the top. The palate is classier than the nose, leaning less artificially flavored candy and more fresh dark berry fruits, ranging from blackberries to cranberries to blueberries to raspberries to cassis. Also has strong hints of bacon, for some reason, almost CdP Syra-esque on the close. Decent balance of weight, even if mostly monochromatic.

I'd give this a higher score if it matched my "likes" better, but the score shouldn't discourage folks that enjoy the abundance of fruit. There's certainly no shortage, and the palate isn't fat and overweight. It's just not totally my thing. It does match the wife's brownies well though!

88 pts.