For The Love Of Port

Many years ago I was drinking and enjoying a young Duoro wine from the very good 2000 vintage, a Quinta dos Aciprestes made by Real Compagnia Velha from old vines of Tinta Franca, Tinta Roriz, and Tinta Barocca. I assume that it was a single quinta wine. Anyway, it was young, bold, vibrant, and relatively inexpensive. I thought it had structure and decided that it was worth cellaring a few bottles.

A few years ago, maybe about five, I tried a bottle and thought it rather bland and insipid, characterless if you will, and thought that I had erred in cellaring it. Not one to continue drinking a "poor" wine I left the other bottles alone. A few weeks ago I came across them while puttering around the cellar and decided to pull one out since it is now a 16 year-old wine.

Last week, with roast chicken for dinner, I thought a light wine was in order and opened the Aciprestes. Well, what a surprise. Here was a fluid, medium-bodied, red-fruited (fleshy cherry) wine with fully resolved tannins, perfect as a mid-week drinker without any pretensions. The lesson here is two-fold, one needs to not only know which bottles can be cellared, but also know the right time to open it.

Cheers ..................... Mahmoud.

Or maybe that one bottle was off?

I made a beer that I found underwhelming after a year or two in bottle, so I started using them for cooking. Years later when I had but a few bottles left I tasted some whilst pouring the rest into the dinner. It was outstanding, but at that point I just had a few left :-(

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Good to know. And as a side RCV has been putting a lot of resources into their dry wines and have been making some very good things at all price points lately. Worth checking them out.


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