(2023) A blend of Touriga Nacional, Sousão and Touriga Franca from vineyards at 350 metres altitude in the Cima Corgo. It is aged 18 months in French oak barrels. That's obvious on the nose, with a balsamic twist and mocha notes to black fruit that's also touched by herby sage notes. In the mouth this has volume and weight, the creamy polish of oak supports rich, sweet and ripe black plum fruit, with a chicory bite of bittersweetness. Its a rich and fruitcakey style.
(2021) This has 25% Syrah in the blend along with Touriga Nacional and some other local grapes. It has a delightful nose, real floral lift and buoyancy, creamy berries and delicate cedar spices. The palate has lots of energy and bite, keen but creamy tannins and a stripe of meaty acidity to give this some heft as well as charm.
(2019) Older French oak for 75% of this, plus 25% of new American oak. Luis says it's a deliberate move to make a style more similar to New World wines, but still all Portuguese varieties (60% Touriga Franca, 25% Touriga Nacional, 15% Tinta Roriz). Slightly balsamic, more spicy opening, but the vinous Douro fruit is there, savoury, dark, lovely deep plummy vine fruits.
(2018) What a beautifully aromatic wine, a deep, deep pool of black fruits, brushed with oak to give cedar and extra spice. In the mouth it is very firm, the authoritative tannins gripping, and suggesting it will cellar well and improve over the medium term, because the fruit is there OK: more black fruit, edged with a tart cherry and plum-skin acidity and grip, into a long finish. I'd cellar this for a couple of years or decant for an hour or two before serving. Made by Rui Cunha of Secret Spot fame.
(2017) It's nice to know that the wines of Pinalta are available in the UK, some time after I wrote about them when they had little UK distribution. This blend of Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca is unoaked and made using only ambient yeasts - the name 'Oçitsac' meaning 'unadulterated'. There's a soaring, fresh, vinous nose of cherry and kirsch, taut black berries and a touch ozoney, minerals and spice. In the mouth it is full and ripe, the dense sweetness of fruit set against creamy, plush tannins, and a framework of acidity that gives some agility and length.
(2017) Made from 40-year-old vines of Touriga Nacional grown in the Tua valley. The wine is foot-trodden in lagar, before maturing for three months in new French oak. Vivid, bold, deep crimson in colour, there's a beautiful fragrance here, the floral top notes of violet and briary roses over firm black fruit and a touch of cedar. The palate has lots of spice, from the grapes rather than the barrels, again that firm and unwavering core of acidity and tannin, wrapped in a smoothing, tobacco and chocolate veneer. Really very good.
(2016) The TR in question is Tinta Roriz, aka Tempranillo, here with dark and vinous aromas of black vine fruits, also coffee and a hint of mint. On the palate this is a substantial, smooth and supple wine, absolutely overflowing with juicy black berry sweetness of fruit, underpinned by that coffee and toast of the oak. The tannins are quite soft and velvetty, whcih with moderate acidity adds to the creamy and seductive picture.
(2016) VV stands for Vinhas Velhas, or 'Old Vines', over 20 different varieties making up the blend from the farm's old mixed planting vineyards. Like the Tinta Roriz, we are back in full-on, seductive and velvetty mode here, with mocha and exotic spices and a bottomless pool of black fruit aromas. On the palate a touch more gamy interest than the TR, and a slightly leaner, higher acid structure too, this has freshness which it has traded for a bit of sheer decadence, but it is a fine wine and ageworthy too.
(2015) Beware the 15.5% alcohol in this beefy Douro red, the nose of which is plummy and dark, yet not without a glimpse of the more fragrant character of the Touriga Franca, just a touch of something violet-like and lifted. There's a polish to this too, with some creamy oak supporting. In the mouth it is plush and dense, with spices and, yes, a bit of alcoholic heat. A full and powerful style again, perhaps lacking a touch of complexity. Note the price is in Euros from Pinalta.com, not pounds.
