From: Douro, Portugal
Varietals: 48% Touriga Nacional, 27% Touriga Franca, 25% Traditional Douro varieties
Taste: In the glass, a bouquet of rich, fresh, and elegant fruit (wild berry, bright bing cherry, blackcurrant, plum skin) meet decadent flavors of dark chocolate, anise, spice, and earth. Although the wine is full-bodied, the mineral, stony nature of the Douro shines through to a long and lifted finish.
Pairing: Serve this wine slightly chilled, alongside pork tenderloin, veal, cutlets, bavette steaks, roast beef, and a wealth of cooked vegetables that range from grilled summertime fare to winter squash dishes and of course, mushroom-based dishes. For today's recipe, we're sharing a comfort-filled pairing originally from the Joy of Cooking, and adapted by Jennifer Steinhauer for Cornbread Tamale Pie. We also suggest to make this dish for an early weeknight dinner- the leftovers are magnificent.
About.
Douro’s Port experts Ramos Pinto – with guidance from owners Champagne Louis Roederer – are onto something with this exceptional red. Grapes come from a pair of vastly different estates, hence the name Duas Quintas (Two Estates).
The low altitude Quinta de Ervamoira is warm and dry, producing rich, ripe and full-dbodied wine. Approximately half a kilometre higher in the cool and airy hills, Quinta dos Bons Ares yields wines with nervy energy, refreshing acidity and wildly exotic aromatics. Blending these two creates a wine from two estates with a singular beauty and phenomenal balance. Half of this Douro Supérieur Tinto is aged in oak, only strengthening that poise and equilibrium. We love its heady Douro perfume and summery character.
The 2018 vintage.
After a dry, very precocious year, the cold winter of 2018 brought the vines' growing cycle back to normal. Intense rains in spring and early summer and the cool temperatures until the end of July delayed the harvest The two crucial months for grape maturation, August and September, were hot and dry, with grapes becoming ripe enough to be harvested. The 2018 wines are surprisingly elegant and fresh.
