For The Love Of Port

Our 20 bottles were $7 to $87. Generally in lineups like this, the most expensive bottles are easy to single out. You can almost taste the investment: the new oak barrels lending their woody, vanilla sheen; the density, richness and power of the fruit flavors, which come from grapes that have been babied every step of the way. It can all be too much.

In fact, two of the three bottles over $60 did not make the cut. The 2007 Quinta do Vale Meão ($87) was much too oaky and powerfully fruity. It was so dense that I felt as if the producers had tried to cram a case’s worth of wine into a single bottle. The 2009 Quinta do Vallado ($63) was a rare Douro wine made entirely of one grape, the touriga nacional, rather than a blend of many. We liked it better than the more expensive bottle, but it, too, was overly fruity and, frankly, a bit simple.