1998 Quinta do Passadouro

[marc j.]

I've tasted this wine a number of times over the years and I was struck by how might lighter this wine appeared. The nose initially gave away very little - maybe some light violet notes intermixed with alcohol? The first glass after decanting seemed to be full of dark fruits along with some tobacco undertones. The finish was dominated by spirit and was a bit on the hot side. Over the course of the next four hours the alcohol blew off, but the tobacco notes remained along with a bit of tar. After 24 hours the spirit calmed down a bit, the dark fruit remained and was joined by some brown sugar notes. At this point this wine had evolved into a nice, albeit somewhat one dimensional, VP.