The first day of holidays in Portugal I decided it best to tip down to the shops for some essentials for the apartment. While perusing the shelves of a local shop (under the pretence of going to the shop for some coffee and milk), not even a wine shop I was not expecting much. However, all was not as it would seem. Normally I am used to going into a supermarket and seeing overpriced banal branded wines staring back at me, today this was not the case. Comment: (We put this up first today because he is on Holiday)
What greeted me was most definitely the proud products of a wine producing nation. Every bottle screamed out at me, ‘I am not Wolf Blass’. I of course replied, ‘perhaps some of us should become better acquainted’. After another ten minutes of getting to know these wonderful characters a little better I had come to a conclusion. This being a supermarket and al at best I am only getting to see some of the weaker and more mass produced wines of the region (Alentejo and Dao). Just as I had come to this conclusion I spotted a bottle, nonchalantly sitting right in front of me.
It spoke to me in a quiet whisper, ‘You have persevered, this is what you have been searching for’. The wine was a 2003 Reserva from Dao DOC, predominantly Touriga Nacional (one of the main Port varietals, with a tiny sticker on it extolling the silver medal it had won for the regional awards. This was what I was subconsciously looking for.
I opened the wine that night and was greeted with a bang of oak and truffle. The label on the back suggested that I decant this wine for an hour, from the initial smell and taste I assumed this to be a conservative estimate. Holy Bananas was I right. Coming back to the wine decanted in a lovely fruit juice jug an hour later I had a good shmell and shlurp … I nearly lost my face.
Think Nick Cage in that film Drive Angry, then superimpose all his ridiculous dialogue and storyline into … Forget it, just think Face Off. This is what happened to me, I was blown away by how much this wine was throwing at me in both aroma and flavour, this is not to mention the tannin. Oh, the tannin. I honest to some supreme non corporeal entity thought this wine was going to rip my face off, then it did.
Nose:
The metamorphosis was not pretty, but I emerged with doves flying and blazing bullets (yes, this is reference to another scene in the eponymous Face Off). On the nose the wine was boldly old and new, a mixture of truffle, dried fruits, violets, a hint of oak, and as it opened up, strawberries, blackberry jam, cedar box, more truffle and coffee. Palate:
On the palate the truffle followed through with intense blackberry jam and some nutmeg on the finish.
Even later the wine gave a hint of dried herbs. To put this in some sort of context o opened this wine 24 hours ago and the latter primary fruits and strawberries only just emerged. Moral of the story, when on holidays don’t be tempted by wines that are €2 and €3 in the local market, I bought one and it was corked and more to the point do what I did, spend a little more than the average on the shelves (€6 for the wine I am talking about), which will be a lot less than you would spend at home for a wine at this quality.
Score A- (89)
Thobias Inkblot
Also Reviewed today is Materne Haegelin, Alcase, Pinot Noir here's a snippet from the article
Being the resident Pinot nut, Power and Smullen's tweet "Do have a tasty Alcase Pinot Noir fom Haegelin" sparked a unusual thirst in me, while my response was tame via the tweet machine, in reality, I was bouncing off the walls of the student gaf here in Maynooth. Having used all my muck-man skills I mastered the treacherous Dublin Bus timetables and pottered in after college one evening. Christ was I glad I bought two. This was wonderful and insanely, too young.
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