I am a huge fan of Colares, and have enjoyed a few bottles of various age, but this was very disappointing. The nose was really nice consisting of dark red fruits, leather and tobacco, a touch of sweet molasses, earth, potpourri, dried flowers. I had poured into my Zalto Burgundy stem, which was perfect for capturing the lovely aromas. Sniffing around in that big bulbous glass was a pleasure. I was expecting great things!
But the palate was just dead and barely resembled the nose at all. Hard to believe this was the same wine! There was that overwhelming generic too-old red wine flavor that tastes sort of like soy sauce, sort of like bone broth, sort of like mud. I was reminded of dried porcini mushrooms, not in a good way. Fruits flavors are completely gone. Very sour and bitter. Oxygen exposure didn’t help at all. Most of the bottle went down the drain.
I’m curious how this was featured on SommSelect, which usually has magnificent bottles that seem very well sourced and in great shape, both new and back-vintages. I’ve ordered lots of stuff from them over the past few years, and this is the first time in which a wine was just not good. There is no way Ian Cauble tasted a wine like this and chose to feature it. The website says this is a cellar-direct import, so I wonder if something happened in transit. Did it get too hot? Was the 20+ yr old wine too fragile for travel? I have one more bottle, so I’m hoping my poor experience is due to bottle variation, however looking at the review of the previous CT commenter, my expectations are low.
I think I’ve only ever had one bottle of Colares. Even people I consider very knowledgeable about wine don’t know what it is. I’ve literally never seen a bottle for sale at a wine shop in the US.
Anyway, it sounds like a spoiled bottle to me. Better luck on your other bottle. If it is similar I’d suspect heat.
I’ve never had it, but knew of it and wished to; ordered from SommSelect and had it sent to my daughter since they can no longer ship to Michigan. I asked her to save one for me. She tried it last week, and contrary to Noah’s experience, raved about it. I do suspect it was a bottle issue, since she and her partner are sophisticated tasters.
1997 Quinta das Vinhas de Areia MJC Colares Colares- Portugal, Lisboa, Colares (2/25/2021)
Initially the nose was very powerful and showy; leather, shoe polish, tobacco, pepper, absent fruit. The palate was very dry and thin. Short. I had a hunch and sure enough After several hours of air (3) the wine out on a little weight, the fruit fleshed out a bit and it became less of an old wine bully and more feminine and elegant. Nose showed subtle roses and baking spices. Finish was now long and spicy. (90 pts.)
Sounds like a disappointment for a Colares. I’ve had more than a dozen of Colares wines, including at least one wine from every decade all the way back to the 1930’s and save for the oxidized 1984, all the wines were remarkably youthful for their age. Well, actually, the wines from the 1970’s were the first ones to actually feel somewhat evolved - all the younger wines were remarkably backward for their age.
Does indeed sound like a dodgy cork (oxidation) or something. So far, I never had a bad Ramisco. The whites are far more variable - '69 Viuva Gomes can sometimes be transcendental but more often are just oxidised.
I’m a huge Colares fan, but have never tried this particular negociant. And yes I did say negociant for a reason… in the 1990s, all Colares wines were still grown and vinified by the cooperative (Adega Regional de Colares) and then the barrels were bought and aged by the other “producers” such as this one.
Now the situation has changed a little: Viuva Gomes (whose wines I recommend wholeheartedly, along with their new Pirata project) have planted some new vineyards and will grow and vinify their own DO Colares in a few years’ time. Fundação Oriente is the only other producer with their own vineyards within the Colares DOC area.
The Adega does a great job, and I can highly recommend recent vintages of their own-label Arenae Ramisco and Malvasia. And yes they are best aged for a considerable time. The Adega still releases the red at around 7-8 years old, but the white is released earlier.
1934 Viuva Gomes, if you can still find it, is extraordinary. If anything feels more youthful than the 1969. 67 also recommended. I’ve not tried the vintages from the 1950s from Chitas or Da Silva, curious…