I still believe in my theory, but unfortunately our choice of Portuguese wines was not that good this time. Too bad that we didn’t do this face-off last week, for the Wine Tasting (III) session.

We had 3 wines: one from California (Napa Valley), one from Douro and one from Bairrada:

• Blend 24, 2004, Napa Valley, California: A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 10% Syrah. An excellent wine (and expensive), we all loved it. Aromas dominated by Berries, texture finishes with soft tannins and a bright acidity.
• Bairrada, Altoviso, garrafeira 1994: this wine is made only with 1 type of grape: Baga. I was expecting something as good as the last one that we tried last week – Primavera 1995. Unfortunately it was completely different, a lot worse than the previous one.
• Romeu, 2003, Douro: This one was definitively different than the Douro wines we are used to. It’s interesting, but we were not crazy about it.

This time, we tried 3 red wines from Douro and 1 wine from Bairrada:

• Aneto, 2002, Douro: fruity, soft tannins. A blend of 5 types of grapes: Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cão and Souzão. Everyone loved this wine and this was the favorite one from Douro. The price was around 10EUR.
• Cistus, Reserva 2003, Douro: also fruity and with soft tannins. This one is a blend of 3 types of grapes: Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional. The average age of the vineyards used for this wine is 21 years old. The price was around 13EUR.
• Encosta longa, Reserva 2003, Douro: this wine is a blend of 4 types of grapes: Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Barroca. After tasting all wines, no one really like this one. Maybe because all the others were superior, maybe not… A few hours later, everyone enjoyed the wine.. Maybe we were all tipsy by then, or maybe the wine needed more time to open… The price of this wine was around 7EUR.
• Primavera, 1995, Bairrada: this wine is made only with 1 type of grape: Baga. It aged enough to delight us all although it can still get better in a few years. Good body, powerful flavor and very elegant this wine was the favorite one from everyone. The price of this wine was around 10EUR. Baga is a typical type of grape from Bairrada. Usually people either love it or hate it. Usually wines made from this type of grape show their splendis after 10+ years.

My fiancee gave me a Wine Tasting game, so this time we had extra fun during the session. We blind-tasted all wines. Each bottle was numbered from 1 to 4. Each one of us had a paper to take notes. I asked them to guess the most expensive wine, to rank each one, and to write everything else they want about each wine.

We all identified the cheapest one and we all thought the wine from Bairrada was the most expensive one. Ah, I have to say that no one is a wine expert.

This time, we tried the following red wines:

• Quinta Vale do Bragão, Douro, 2002 – An amazing wine from Douro of course. Established on the Pinhão slopes in the 18th Century, Quinta Vale do Bragão belongs to the Borges Costa family. Its varieties of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinto Cão are carefully vinified and then aged 12 months in small oak barrels. A balanced structure carries great complexity to a pleasing finish.
• Herdade de Muge, Ribatejo, 2004 – The Herdade da Muge is a concentrated wine with complex berry and spice flavours, and well integrated oak.
• Quinta do Couquinho, Douro, 2003 – Another amazing wine from Douro. Its varieties of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca are carefully vinified and then aged for 12 months in French oak barrels. Powerful flavor, very elegant, a long finish and excellent tannin result n an elegant and perfectly balanced red wine.

From the above 3 my first choice is the third one, although for most of my friends it was the first one. Anyway I loved both.