Can we expect yet another solid red wine from Portugal’s Douro Valley? Based on their track record with me over the years I am nodding my head up and down.
We try a Quinta da Rede 2017 Reserva. The nose shouts out “full bodied”! Rich black cherry, blackberry, blueberry at times touched with a floral tinge. If a proper descriptive term to describe an aroma is “creamy” I will say that this fits the bill.
On the palate there are creeping tannins that aren’t instantaneously noticeable. Great purity of black fruit with a moderately long finish. On the upper end of elegance whereas it could very well have been brutish. To paraphrase an awful American television show we should say the “Douro Has Got Talent” except there are only highly polished professionals participating in this wine show!
Give me this wine with a traditional Douro Duck Casserole or just about any duck like “Duck in a Can” from Montreal’s “Au Pied de Cochon”. Although I eat very little meat I may have this with a rare Prime Rib and Yorkshire Pudding on New Year’s Day.
While the wine is drinking beautifully now I can see it becoming more elegant in 3 years. A blend of indigenous Tinta Roriz, Tinta Franca and Touriga Nacional. The wine has been skillfully aged in French oak for 8 months.
(Quinta da Rede 2017 Reserva, Douro DOC, Quinta da Rede, Santa Cristina, Portugal, $18.95, 750 mL, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 431742, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 92/100).
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