TN: Blind tasting for upcoming June publication

Joined my dad today for one of the monthly blind tasting he does for Revista de Vinhos, Portugal’s most important wine publication. We tasted eight reds and should be tasting eight whites tomorrow (I’ll post the notes). Overall I was pleased with what turned out for us, very surprised at the provenance of a couple of these, and once again reminded of how inexpensive our wines are compared to other markets. I’m still not allowed to publically which wines these were - we checked right after tasting and completing our notes - but I will once the next edition is out. Dad scored the wines, as he must, but I don’t like to put numerical rigor into subjectivity.

1 - 2018 Bucelas. Medium density ruby color, not too bright. Wide, creamy red fruit nose - mostly currant, with some underripe strawberry and blackberry - as well as what struck me as a hint of white spice and hot forest soil. Rather tight and acidic on the mouth, as well as somewhat narrow, though with well integrated tannins. Not a layered wine, but a competent, fresh, young red.

2- 2015 Bucelas. Dark ruby color. Nose of ripe black prune, red bell pepper, markedly though not disproportionately oaky, slightly balsamic. Pleasant, round, balanced mouth, full yet not too lingering, with vaguely salty finish.

3- 2016 DOP Douro. Opaque purple ruby, with a violet perimeter that screams Touriga. The nose is Insta-Douro: rosemary, schist, damp earthiness - exactly what you smell as you step outside in the Douro on a hot day - followed by steamed ripe red fruit, and a subtle Earl Grey, black pepper, dark chocolate-y finish. Layered, long mouth. Good example of a young Douro red.

4- 2016 DOP Douro. Pale, translucid ruby. Pure, one dimensional nose of red fruit and forest floor. Youthful, astringent mouth. Unremarkable.

5 - 2019 Alentejo. Clear, light ruby. Fresh strawberry, raspberry, sour cherry nose, with a hint of marzipan and wet clay. Fresh, youthful mouth, balanced.

6 - 2017 IGP Lisboa. Deceptively lactic, fruity nose, like a berry yogurt - my first impression was margarine. Surprisingly, in the mouth I found it fresh and balanced, round, acidic, persistent and bright.

7 - 2015 Bairrada. Underripe wild berries, beetroot, bay leaf, pine tree nose. Rugged, tannic mouth, incisive.

8 - 2013 Bairrada. This was easily my favorite of the eight: olive, mushroom, asparagus, black pepper, forest floor, coffee vapor-ish nose. Rugged tannic mouth, only slightly tamed by time, with a subtle hint of cured meat. This will still improve with cellar time.

How do you taste these? Do you pour them all into glasses and taste side by side? Do you taste them all out of the same glass? Do you know what wines are going to be poured?

There are a number of different vintages here, is that typical?

In several of my groups we would have a glass for each wine. Then you don’t have any problem with one wine being influenced by the wine you just had, since you could taste and re-taste and compare each to each. But we generally wouldn’t mix vintages unless that was the point - comparing two or three.

Some tastings are theme based - according to variable criteria such as region, producer, price level, etc. In this case we simply went through the share of wines which were allocated to my dad for monthly review. These are recent releases, and have no unifying theme whatsoever other than the fact that they are recent releases whose producers have an interest in being displayed in publication (although only grades above 14,5 are published). These were tasted one at a time, but all will be tasted at least once more, probably twice.

Bottles are covered with thick paper. Before tasting we only know what’s in my notes - provenance and vintage. Occasionally, though, the cork allows us to recognize the producer. This happened with two of these.

Did it with the same glass, washing after each tasting (time consuming and dull, but we don’t have 16 red wine glasses at home).

Although we might have a subjective preference in the global context of these tastings, it doesn’t make it to the published notes or the grades. These are different regions and different vintages at different price ranges, and therefore the intention is always to evaluate each wine on its own merits and shortcomings.