For The Love Of Port

Thanks be to ______ (fill in your choice of sacred object of gratitude), I found a great little wine yesterday. As far as I'm concerned, how a person likes a wine will be influenced significantly by how one feels about its quality, and to a lesser extent, by how much he or she likes the particular style. Having acknowledged this, if I had the time, money, skill and inclination to make a good red wine for casual or serious consumption, enjoyable in its relative youth or can age too, I think this would be high up on my personal list. Nobody else here may enjoy this as much as I do. Fair enough.

I've had two wines with very similar bouquet profiles to this one - an organic brute of a Chilean wine with a big hit of Cabernet Franc; and, the 2004 Chateau Monbousquet from St. Emilion, dominated by Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The nose is open and heavy, with notes of earth, spice, some (pleasant) herbaceousness, and dark fruit. Oh yes, the wine is opaque, dark purple, with little lightening at the rim. This bouquet is just great. Then in your mouth, the wine is open, smoother than its take-no-prisoners nose suggests, long and rich. I really wonder how this would have turned out had it been fortified, because man, it is good. Unless you like full bodied red wines by themselves, this really needs some food - a gourmet veggie pizza with some chili peppers would be divine.

OK, now the winemaker's comments: "This wine is produced in South of Portugal with the following varietals: Aragones (40%), Trincadeira (40%), Alicante Bouschet (10%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (10%). It has an intense ruby color, a complex aroma with accents of ripe red fruit and a well structured soft ending." It's from the Alentejano region, 13.5% alcohol - and does not taste hot at all. The label with drawings of 4 musicians is very cool too. Best of all, it's $17 in BC, and probably less elsewhere, if you can find it.

If poured blind, I would predict most of my friends here would guess it was in the $45 to $50+ a bottle range. This is at least as enjoyable in its own right as Chateau Chasse-Spleen at close to triple the price, and like its famous Bordeaux namesake, does a fine job of chasing the blues. An excellent effort, buy one bottle and then a case if possible!

Sounds like a wine to enjoy. Various complimentary comments on CT including one from the "famous" Richard Jennings!

Hi Bob, could you please clarify for me who or what CT is along with the person in question. Sorry to say I am not familiar with either of them.

Speaking only for myself, that was one of the top two or three most enjoyable sub-$20 wines I have had for at least 2 years.

Hi again Bob, I found the references on Cellar Tracker, thanks. Yes this is produced by Sociedade Agricola Encosta do Guadiana (SAEG). A day later, it is still very heavy and full flavored. For my wife's taste, a bit too strong. So my guess is, this wine will fall into the love it or hate it camp. I'm in the former.

Most times when I research a certain wine, I see a reference from this Jennings chap. He has a great website and seems to taste endlessly! Has a good palate and also seems to enjoy older wines especially Barolo!

Last night, this wine's bouquet had become more pungent, vegetal, especially with bell pepper. The gentleman sharing this, a recent madeira convert (thanks !), couldn't drink it, it was too strong for him. Personally I liked this uncompromising aroma, but the wine's profile is becoming more of "love it or hate it". This may appeal to those who like red Burgundy on the gamey side.

Richard Jennings is a friend of mine. He came along with FTLOP on the 2010 Fortification Tour, although we met at a wine dinner back in 2003/4 in LA. He drinks many thousands of wines per year and certainly an amazing array of top notch expensive wines as well as every day wines too. He is very much into Barolo and Italian wines, loves Madeira and Burg and is knowledgeable about wine far more than most who are not in the business. He has attended several of the Madeira events I have hosted over the years and he has penned over a half dozen Guest Corner articles for newsletters over the years, always on Madeira.

Coincidentally, CellarTracker is the creation of a much closer friend of mine. I've known Eric when he was still just a MSFT nerd, and I say that with all due respect. He was in the very early stages of wine. Having just closed the door on one of my tasting groups, I started up a new one in late 2003 and he was invited into it. Around the same time he was developing the beta site for CT. Long before our TNDB, I used to license my tasting notes to his database. As CellarTracker has grown, so has Eric's fondness for wine ... and knowledge ... exponentially.

I remember at a wine dinner at my home, in May 2003, he had his first taste of Douro wine. Quite a few of us at the table were loving it. Being fairly new to wine, but exceptionally intelligent, he commented that he thought the wine was nothing special. The guy next to him was wondering what in particular he did not like about its taste and Eric carefully analyzed the wine from his perspective. What he didn't know is that he was sitting next to the winemaker and telling him why he disliked his wine. It was Dirk Niepoort, who introduced himself to Eric who was staring at the name on the bottle when Dirk told him who he was. It was a moment I will likely never forget. Neither will Eric. Name dropping: also at the table that night, Richard Mayson, Jorge Borges (Q do Passadouro and Pintas ... who at the time was Dirk's asst. winemaker) and another Jorge, Jorge Moreira who was very new to winemaking at the time and is now responsible for Quinta de la Rosa and Real Companhia Velha (Royal Oporto) Port and DOC winemaking. It is hard to believe nine years have passed since then.