2010 Dow Quinta Senhora da Ribeira
Posted: 23:20 Sun 14 Apr 2013
Bought two bottles of this at Weingalerie, Berlin.. I'd heard from a few places that this was a very good drinking port now, so decided to pop one last night to accompany a steak.. I wasn't sure about the best way to let this wine present itself so young, but followed the recommendations of Paul Symington here... stood the bottle for an hour or so, opened it, stood another 20 mins, decanted for another hour and tucked in.
This wine gave me a very clear demonstration of terms I'd read but not really smelt / tasted yet. It's delightful, really a phenomenal young port. Obviously it's like dark purple ink, and on the nose it has heavy violet fragrances, perhaps with rose underneath that. It definitely has berries or currants rather than any other fruit notes. At the risk of causing unintended offence, I'd say it had a great nose of both blackcurrants and elderberries (sorry.. but I have drunk a fair amount of elderberry wine in my time so it's a taste I recognise.. I don't mean to libel anyone at QSdR..)
In the mouth this is just a revelation. It rolled on tongue with the same berries, but it has a delightful, tight tannic finish, on the tongue, teeth and gums, which is dry and long. It's peppery but not amazingly so. The best first flush Darjeeling has these tannins sometimes, which linger for ages and ages and leave a strong sensation of the taste in the mouth. Not at all sharp, no unwelcome acidity or bitterness, and no heat that would be off-putting, but a great dryness that really coats the front of the mouth.
This is a very, very good port drunk now and I'm ordering more soon to put away; with this much body and structure I look forward to seeing how it weathers a couple of decades... Better than I will I'm sure...
This wine gave me a very clear demonstration of terms I'd read but not really smelt / tasted yet. It's delightful, really a phenomenal young port. Obviously it's like dark purple ink, and on the nose it has heavy violet fragrances, perhaps with rose underneath that. It definitely has berries or currants rather than any other fruit notes. At the risk of causing unintended offence, I'd say it had a great nose of both blackcurrants and elderberries (sorry.. but I have drunk a fair amount of elderberry wine in my time so it's a taste I recognise.. I don't mean to libel anyone at QSdR..)
In the mouth this is just a revelation. It rolled on tongue with the same berries, but it has a delightful, tight tannic finish, on the tongue, teeth and gums, which is dry and long. It's peppery but not amazingly so. The best first flush Darjeeling has these tannins sometimes, which linger for ages and ages and leave a strong sensation of the taste in the mouth. Not at all sharp, no unwelcome acidity or bitterness, and no heat that would be off-putting, but a great dryness that really coats the front of the mouth.
This is a very, very good port drunk now and I'm ordering more soon to put away; with this much body and structure I look forward to seeing how it weathers a couple of decades... Better than I will I'm sure...
