The 2018 Tinto Quinta de Ervamoira is a field blend aged for 18 months in one-third new French oak (about one-third overall in large vats). It comes in at 15% alcohol (actual). This is a single-quinta red, of course, only sourced from the best parcels. (There will eventually be a single-parcel wine too, but maybe not from this quinta.) Smooth and refined, this shows off its mid-palate finesse. In its youth, however, it also shows off that new wood a bit too much. That will get better in time. The tannins are very ripe, so you can drink this now, but you'd be well advised to give this a couple of years anyway to let it be all it can be. It's pretty delicious even now, though, and hard to resist. Yet two days later, it was still super and still improving. To my shock, it had hardly budged an inch. It didn't and doesn't seem to have the structure for that, but so far, so good. CEO Jorge Rosas thinks it may last a lot longer, but let's still be conservative on this gentle debut and start here. For the moment, this seems very fine, but it's probably a step short of great. There were just 4,370 bottles produced.
Jancis Robinson (16.50)
Full bottle 1,650 g. A blend of 86% Touriga Nacional, 14% Touriga Franca, from several small plots. Fermented in granite lagares and aged 18 months in French oak barrels (one-third new, one-third used) and vats (one-third).
Very deep purplish crimson. Smells rich, sweet and ripe – and alcoholic, with oak as well as fruit sweetness. Very concentrated, almost eye-wateringly so. Full bodied, smooth, unexpectedly rounded tannins but plenty of them. Darker and more savoury in the flavours on the palate but I couldn’t drink more than a very small glass of this as it is so concentrated. The alcohol is just about in proportion but there’s a warmth at the back of the throat. Tastes more like a dry port than a red wine. So concentrated that the finish is just a touch bitter. You can have too much of a good thing. Lovers of mass and concentration may love it but it is too much for me, and I suspect it would be too much to match with food. (JH)
