Some table wines on Friday

[Frederick Blais]

I had a tasting of portuguese table wine and port this past Friday, look in the other thread for the port tasting notes. Nothing was really impressive, but all the wines were pleasant. Here's some short impressions.

Quinta da Ponte Pedrinha 1997: A wine from Dao, the ruby color is still holding nicely, shy nose on notes of field berries, minerality and animal fur. Mouth is light body, balanced, simple and short with red berries and vegetal notes on the finish. 13/20

Quinta do Castelinho colheita especial 2000: Light on the nose, showing some minerality, nice fruit, some chocolate. On the palate the opening shows lot of acidity, tannins are soft, the fruit is pleasant, still simple but has more lenght than the #1
14/20

Quinta Gaivosa 2000: Nose more open, with nice mineral and chocolate flavour, fresh red berries and definitively has more intensity than the 2 previous. Still in this wine too the acidity is showing on the palate but has more stuff to balance it, dark cherries, minerality and some light toasted oak after taste. I had this wine last year and I found it undrinkable, a bad bottle or it is evolving well. The best red of the night but not worth spending 50$can on this. 15/20

Quinta do Castelinho Lagar 2000: First nose was very close, then some fruits and candies flavor were showing. The mouth is medium body it has more tannins than the previous wines giving a dryer style and more power, but all this is very short. The finish shows some cooked fruits flavor. 14/20

Sogrape #5 2004 : It was the 5th wine of the night, the reason for the name because Sogrape has wet found one. It was a gift from the importer who received a manager not too long ago. Nose is explosive but light on flavors of young berries, floral, cassis and licorice. The mouth is deceiving though, taste like a young beaujolais nouveau, lots of sweet artificial candies like flavor,with bold tannins and a short finish. 14/20

[Roy Hersh]

Fred,

I am sorry the wines did not show better for you. I am familiar with a couple of them but have not tasted these particular wines. Keep on trying, as you know, there are a lot of great Douro wines out there.

[Frederick Blais]

I knew Castelinho would not provide me with amazing wines but the 2000 were down on quality compare to the 1998 I've tasted. Also what did not help the wines, they were all double decanted(poured back in the bottle) 4 hours before the tasting by the organizer and I think the wines suffured from that.

I did not have the time to write it but this night we had the Infantado LBV 1996 which was fantastic, and normally I'm not a fan of this house, the Graham and Martinez 1991, both mature but the Graham had a so great finish and special experience with a brownish Colheita 1950 of Castelinho.

Its part of the game to taste wine that do not meet your expectation, but it won't stop me from tasting something new!

I should taste the Quinta Vale Meâo for the first time this week-end at a tasting for my 27th birthday ouch!