2018 Calem

[Alex Bridgeman]

Calem 2018 cask sample (half bottle). Deep purple colour, forming dark red tears on the glass. Brambles and red pears on the nose, smelling slightly baked. Fresh and assertive entry, sweet and beautiful fruit but with a well balanced set of ripe tannins. Plenty of acidity, but a much deeper and denser sweetness of fruit. The ripe black fruit has a lovely persistence on the aftertaste and finish and a great length, with tannins and acidity poised nicely. A good Port, perhaps a little too sweet to have the perfect balance. A few days in the bottle allows the wine to develop a lovely perfume of sweet dark cherry fruit withlenty of grip on entry around the cherry fruit. Very nicely balanced. Quite a big wine with big tannins on the palate with generous sweet fruit. Some harshness on the aftertaste quickly settles into a ripe black chocolate and sweet, fragrant black cherry finish. 91-93/100.