I’ve been thinking about my favourite wines of the year over the past couple of weeks, and this features towards the top of the list. Considering that many of these top end portugese wines have only been available in Australia for 12 months or so, they have gained huge popularity and a loyal following with wine drinkers around Australia. This wine is at the top of the heap for me.

Quinta do Vale Meao is the top table wine here, with Meandro de Vale Meao being the ‘entry level’ wine. What really enhances the complexity here is the different soil types on the Quinta, while it is all what would generally called schist, areas of slate, granite and alluvial gravel show very different characters in the resulting fruit. The high percentage of Touriga National (60%) also helps a lot. The remaining 40% is 20% Touriga Franca, 15% Tinta Roriz, 5% Tinta Barroca.

A really engaging nose of gun smoke, violets and wild flowers, blackberry, dark cherry and mulberry, wild herbs and hot tarmac. In the mouth it feels quite rounded at the start, gaining more more focus as it gets more air. Well textured with supple tannins, plenty of them too. Juicy and meaty, but smooth and very complex. Rocky/stoney minerals, cherry, blueberry and plum on the palate with plenty of complexity thanks to some spices, wild herbs and liquorice. An excellent wine, decant it for a bit to sharpen things up. The ageing is a question that is difficult to answer for these douro reds, they have only been around for 10 years or so, but this looks like it will improve over the short term, then go 15 years standing on it’s head. 96+ Pts.

 Source: The Spanish Acquisition Price: $140 Closure: Conventional Cork