For The Love Of Port

I'm writing this during my third glass of this wine, so it may contain errors in grammar, spelling, or otherwise. I have not read any comments made by anyone else here or elsewhere. It's nice to be back participating here after a bit of a hiatus. Tonight being a special occasion for reasons I would rather not discuss, I wanted to enjoy some nice wine with some rack of lamb. My first impulse was to reach for a right bank Bordeaux or a Hermitage, but decided to give this wine a shot. I have to admit this wine absolutely surpassed my expectations and proved to be an excellent pairing.

In the glass, visually it's a dead ringer for port. It's got a lovely aroma of raspberries, chocolate and a little spice, very port like albeit not as intense. In the mouth, it is exceptionally smooth and rich, with sweet tannins, and again fruit forward. My wife too noticed this trait. Regrettably the finish is short. In spite of the wine's 14.5% alcohol content, the overall weight of the wine is not very high. It's extremely pleasant and enjoyable, but not very powerful - except for the alcohol.

In my personal opinion, this would be an excellent wine where one might normally serve a tannic Pinot Noir (thinking Gevrey Chambertin in particular), a Grenache-dominant Chateauneuf du Pape, or even a Merlot-dominant right Bank St.-Emilion. While it is an excellent match with lamb, I suspect it would be even better with rabbit or duck. In the $40 to $45 price range I can think of no other red table wine in recent memory which is so well made. If this had a better finish and maybe a touch more complexity, I would consider it a classic effort. I purchased a $60 Delas Freres Chante-Perdrix Cornas served with New York steak in the late evening of March 1, and with hindsight knowledge wish I had this instead. As it presently stands, the wine is in the excellent-plus range, drinking at the $60 to $80+ level. I plan to get more of it. If my hunch is right, this wine would also be dynamite with Black Forest Cake.

This wine is a reminder that Portugal is capable of producing superb table wine, and nearly unbeatable in terms of quality-price ratio. Very enthusiastically recommended.

I'm writing this during my third glass of this wine, so it may contain errors in grammar, spelling, or otherwise.

No worries, ever wonder where all my errors originate from

This wine is a reminder that Portugal is capable of producing superb table wine, and nearly unbeatable in terms of quality-price ratio. Very enthusiastically recommended.

Totally agree. Portugal, and especially the Douro Valley, is making some fantastic stuff at the moment and has only been getting better in the past 10-15 years. Best part is prices are somewhat low compared to similar scored wines from other regions...a real plus for us!

On sober second thought, this wine shares QPR honors with a particularly fine offering from the Costieres de Nimes, a 2003 Mas de la Barben La Calice. The French wine is a touch more alcoholic, much more earthy, and for lack of a better term, brawnier. The Douro wine makes up in elegance and refinement for what it may lack in sheer power, and I suspect many people would prefer this style. It's exceptionally food friendly, and has a seductiveness not too far removed from Pomerol of all places. Good luck finding a wine from there of that quality for less than $100!

It appears this wine is quite readily available too, which is an extra stroke of good fortune for wine lovers who give higher priority to what it is inside the bottle instead of outside. Fine wine is not trophy-hunting display, but life enrichment.

I've polished off the bottle late tonight. If I may offer some belated thoughts, the wine is equally successful with Indian butter lamb. I've finally taken the liberty of reading some commentaries outside this site, and in general concur with the overal scores and the sentiment that it lacks a degree of length and concentration. I however categorically reject, based on this bottle, any semblance of roughness the second day. It remains a very solid offering.