Wine & Spirits - Winter 2023 - 77

currant fl avors. It melds dry tannins and
sweet fruit, underlined by dusty, umami
notes of mushrooms. Kindred Vines, Troy, MI
88 | Ravasqueira
$14
2021 Alentejano Guarda Rios Red Blend
(BEST BUY) ^ Red and black and green and blue,
this ranges across all the colors of Alentejo's
rainbow of fruit. It's bold and generous, rich
with sweet fruit in the end. § Tri-Vin Imports,
New Rochelle, NY
88 | Herdade do Sobroso $18
2021 Alentejo Sobroso Tinto (BEST BUY) ^
Our panel found this to be a unique wine for
$18. A blend of aragonez and alicante bouschet
that includes 20 percent each of cabernet
sauvignon and syrah, this comes together
in a lean, cool, minty red with herbal-tobacco
juiciness to its blue fruit. There's also a butterscotch
note of oak-one taster suggested
serving it with pork tenderloin and clove
mustard. § Brands of Portugal, Rumford, RI
87 | Adega de Redondo
$10
2021 Alentejano Terras Lusas Tinto (BEST
BUY) ^ Cocoa and spice, this has sweetness
alongside grippy tannic bitterness that off ers
some dynamic tension in a $10 wine. Simple,
lean and spicy. § Saraiva, New Bedford, MA
Port
Our blind panels tasted 18 Port wines for this
issue. W&S Editor Joshua Greene rated 12
as exceptional, and 1 as a Best Buy. Find a
complete list of wines tasted and all reviews
at wineandspiritsmagazine.com.
TAWNY
95 | Ramos Pinto
$95
Porto Tawny 20 Years Quinta do Bom
Retiro ^ Shimmering with quiet energy, this
is a scintillating Port with bright amber fruit
fl avors of apricot. Light in body and lasting
in complexity, it captures the welcoming
scent of a Port lodge in Gaia, an antique
scent of old wine in old wood, of humidity
enriching the fruit, revealing a creamy note
of caramel-coated peaches in the middle,
then turning drier, more austere in the end.
A lovely 20-year-old, at the cusp of freshness
and maturity. § MMD USA, Oakland, CA
94 | Ramos Pinto
$115
Porto Tawny 30 Years ^ Dark amber in color,
this 30-year-old is high-toned in its spice, as
if the alcohol fused into the wine's fl avors is
adding to their complexity, or, as one panelist
said, " it brings the party. " Clean, supple,
heady and rich, this lightens up in the end,
but it still feels substantial and giving. §MMD
USA, Oakland, CA
93 | Rozès
86 | Carmim
$10
2021 Alentejo Reguengos (BEST BUY) ^ This
is pretty in its high-toned violet scents and
berry-skin tannins, while a little porty and
pruney in its ripeness. For braised trotters. §
Saraiva, New Bedford, MA; Tri-Vin, New
Rochelle, NY
86 | Monte das Promessas $11
2020 Alentejano Tinto (BEST BUY) ^ Warm
and spicy, this wine's strawberry-red and
ripe blue fruit rides on the surface, bringing
resinous eucalyptus notes in its wake. A
sweetish red for braises. §New France Wine, St.
Paul, MN●
$175
Porto Over 40 Years Old ^ Elegant and elegiac,
showing its age in the woody tannins
and chocolatey spice of its oak, this beautiful
old Tawny lasts with a ghost of fruit complexity.
And yet it is also bold, right in the
middle, where the juiciness of peach and pear
and apricot drip with surprising freshness for
such an elder wine. It sticks to the lips with
sweet savor, along with a hint of fresh wildmushroom
notes in the end. § Vranken Pommery
America, NY
93 | Van Zellers
$150
Port 40 Year Old Tawny ^ Sweet, spicy and
cool, this layers fruit acidity and schist tannins
into its heady, luxurious fl avors, rich and
super long. It has the aromatic complexity of
tobacco in a cigar, while the texture is delicate
to the touch, sumptuous without being
weighty. The fl avors share that fat richness,
with a tingle of spice in the end. § M.S. Walker,
Norwood, MA
92 | Rozès
$60
Porto 20 Years Old (BEST BUY) ^ Warm up
front, this comes together with tense, fl oral
richness. It's sweet and layered, bringing
an appetite for the lacquered crisp skin on
Peking duck. Yes, it would be delicious with
spice-rubbed duck, or with grilled, ponzumarinated
eggplant. Sweet with bakingspice
fl avors, round in the middle, this turns
savory as it coasts into the fi nish. § Vranken
Pommery America, NY
91 | Ramos Pinto
$40
Porto Tawny 10 Years Quinta de Ervamoira
^ Caramel scents don't override this
wine's schisty Douro warmth. A touch of
chocolatey oak knits with the bittersweet fl orality
of orange rind, comforting and rich. §
MMD USA, Oakland, CA
90 | Van Zellers
$110
Port 30 Year Old Tawny ^ With its scents of
plum pudding and Christmas spice, this is
generous if a little broad in the middle, with
a fi nish that is intriguing enough to bring
you back for another taste. An amber Tawny,
sweet, simple and fully mature. § M.S. Walker,
Norwood, MA
COLHEITA
95 | Kopke
$175
1974 Porto Colheita ^ Sleek and supple, this
wine's plum and prune scents are immediately
delicious and carried with astonishing
energy for a 50-year-old wine. The fruit
is dark and tangy, with orange highlights
and freshness blooming in the fi nish like a
rose in the sun. Tastings editor Corey Warren
described it as " an energetic old man,
brash and aggressive and, at the same time,
charming. " Personally, I'd be happy to keep
this energetic and charming old wine comWINTER
2023
WINE & SPIR IT S
77
http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com https://www.tri-vin.com/wines/portugal/reguengos-de-monsaraz-reguengos-tinto-2021-pp0072-2021/ https://kopke1638.com/store/port-wines/colheita/kopke-colheita-tawny-port-1974/
Wine & Spirits - Winter 2023

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