Tasting Montes Cabernet/ Carmenére Limited selection 2003

After a very interesting experience in Chile, for Harvest time, I am now finally back at home!

I promised to post some of the wines I tasted there but to be honest it was a very busy time, specially because of the huge amount of grapes processed ( something like 8-9 million kgs….) and so time to post wasn´t that much…

Well…but now I´m back and I brought some bottles with me (declared at the airport, of course….) and so I´ll try to redime myself and post as much as I can! (I hope my liver can hold on…..)

So…to start I opened a bottle of this wine at Almeida´s place ( it is always such a nice time that we spend there usually with his family and specially with his father that knows a lot of the wine business and always adds something interesting to the conversation) and if for me it wasn´t a surprise because I´ve tasted it in Chile, I think for my friends it was a nice one!

Made with 70% cabernet and 30% Carmenére ( a almost “dead” French grape variety that is now one of Chile´s most appreciated ones), was a excellent nose, with a lot of freshness, green peppers, spicy (a bit look-a-like Touriga Nacional I think) and in the mouth shows very round tannins, good attack , balanced, nice acidity, but being a “easy to drink” wine I think its´time to drink it showing now all his potencial.

Has a good mouthfeel with a spicy finale. A really nice wine to drink and with a very good QPR.

Drink it now. 88 points.

Tasting - Vale da Corça 2001

I told you I would be back... :)

One of the wines of the night... the 7th ou 8th I can't remember (and I wasn't drunk... honestly) was Vale da Corça 2001... the Brunheda top quality wine...

Vale da Corça is a family owned company (owned by the Mesquita family) and it's one of the Douro names that we mostly know from the Douro wines much more then for the Ports... I'm not sure but I think that they don´t even bottle Ports under this name (am I right?)... more less the same thing happens with names like Quinta do Crasto, Quinta do Vale Meao, Quinta do Portal among others...

This is their top quality wine... the grapes come from old, south face vineyards planted mostly with Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cão and also Sousao... 6000 bottles were produced! I had 2... the first time I tasted it was a couple of months ago, with my father... and the second was last Friday with friends... Previous point... the first bottle showed much better than the second one... The second previous point... the wine we had Friday should/had to be decanted like the first bottle I had ... in the beggining it showed a mettalic aftertaste that, after a hour in the glass it started to disappear.... :) Dark red colour starting to show the evolution with some brown hints on the rim. Attractive sweet herby, caramelly aroma to the slightly porty style. Good concentration and interesting ripe herby notes. Good acidity, mouth volume, and domesticated tannins make it very pleasent drinking. Still it wasn´t a consensual wine... and imagine the discussion if we knew how much it is afford...something like 90€ a bottle... didn't pay for it... and so.... not knowing the price I would say that for the 2 bottles I had (one better the other less good) it worth... 89 Points... no comments on the price... really! Cheers!

Tasting - Soalheiro Alvarinho 1ª Vinhas 2006

Long time no see... :) I have been away for almost 3 months... work and some other stuff didn't allow me to post in this long... long period.... tasted some good things thow!

Last Friday the four of us (founders of this sharing space) joined Almeida's family, my girlfriend and a couple (Joana and Pedro) of friends of us and had a great dinner! Celebrating Almeida´s weekend in the north and mostly celebrating Ricardo being back from Chile (finally.... wellcome back my friend...) and tasted 8 (I think) different wines... Hope we can distribute from the 4 of us the different posts... at least some! I'm sure everyone remembers all the wines... (or maybe not!)

First one to be tasted was a Vinho Verde from Melgaço made of Alvarinho, a grape variety that I really appreciate, specially when coming from this area where it shows its best potential. It's a «joint venture» of Dirk Niepoort (known from his Douro and Port Wines) and Luis Cerdeira from Soalheiro! The Cerdeira family have been producing wines since the beginning of the 80's and most of their wines show a huge aging potential... It's said that Dirk and Luis were tasting all the grapes from Soalheiro and the oldest vine (1 ha with more than 25 years old) showed higher quality. So they decided to separate those grapes and fermented them the slower they could (it took 4 months) and at the lowest temperature... fermentation occured in stainless steel and aging too on the lees. The result is a citric coloured wine showing mineral, smoky (although the wine is not aged in the wood) notes and a very elegant aroma. In the mouth it has a big volume, very good citric acidity, orange peel and lime notes. Long aftertaste. It's a very very very good Alvarinho, one of those that I believe that can last for a long period (around 10 years old).... good thing for me... I have another 4 bottles still...:) 3000 were produced... I don´t know the price... can someone help??? 90 Points

PS - We should have a better picture... but they are on Almeida's camera... so I stole this from the Internet...