TN: 2009 Quinta Vale D. Maria Douro

[Andy Velebil]

Opened and consumed over 3 hours. This put on some weight as it aired out but remained rather light bodied compared to past vintages. Loganberries, tar, drying tannins, and very distracting heat dominated the palate. An easy drinking wine that was consistently marred by the excessive alcohol protruding. I'm concerned with how this will age given it's rather simple body and protruding alcohol. I've enjoyed previous vintages of this immensely, yet this bottle was a let down I'm sad to say. I don't know if this bottle was representative or not so I'll reserve final judgement after I've had another bottle or two.
87 Points

[David Spriggs]

Wow. That wine was very highly rated. I almost bought a case of it recently. Let me know how your next bottle shows.

[Andy Velebil]

I saw the reviews but had a very different experience with this bottle. I can't recall having had this before so I don't have a baseline if this bottle was off in some way. If it was TCA, it was at a very very low level. Just enough to rob it of some fruit. As I didn't get even the slightest hint of it and as you know I'm very sensitive to TCA. As soon as I get to try another I'll report back.

[Rune EG]

It must be something wrong with that particular bottle.
I have had five bottles of that vintage and rated it 94 pts, which is very high in my book.
Recommend you to try another bottle from differant source / storage

[Andy Velebil]

It must be something wrong with that particular bottle.
I have had five bottles of that vintage and rated it 94 pts, which is very high in my book.
Recommend you to try another bottle from differant source / storage

Thanks Rune, Figured something had to be off as I've never had such a poor showing of this wine before. Storage was good as I got them from a very solid retailer where a friend works. So I know they were handled well. I can only assume it was the low level TCA issue, just enough to rob it but not enough to detect by nose.