For The Love Of Port

Deep red in colour, showing very little impact of the 10 years of age. Lovely soft nose of tart blueberries and lavender. Silky texture, soft flavours envelope the tongue and caress the cheeks before the tannins coat the teeth with fur - this is still so incredibly tannic for a 10 year old wine. The complexity of the wine is impressive and the acidity held in check beautifully by the ripe, sweet fruit. The aftertaste is dominated by the tannin, but this does eventually give way to a tasty and long finish of raspberries and bitter almonds. This is a terrific wine and was opened a decade before it will be at its best - what a pity! 94/100, drunk 21 April 2010 after 2 hours decanting.

This was indeed a splendid bottle of wine. It was very kindly gifted to me by the producer, Paul Reynolds, when I visited the Quinta in 2008. An excellent example of a full-bodied Douro DOC wine produced in the traditional way from very old vines. Well worth trying if you can find some.