TN: 2012 Quinta da Aveleda Charamba

[Eric Menchen]

Tasted at the Denver airport as I was getting ready to head to Seattle for a weekend of Port tasting, this seemed an appropriate choice. According to the restaurant, this was Touriga Nacional, but CellarTracker shows it as a blend. This was a single pour from a bottle, time opened unknown. The aromas showed a very young wine, with lots of tangy fruit, and a little off aroma as well. Some depth of aroma began developing, and the wine started to show some Douro character, with some musty leaf and blackberry. In the mouth, this was medium bodied and pleasant at first, but that off aroma showed itself here too. VA? 87 points.

[Andy Velebil]

Never been a fan of this wine. Always came off as industrial tasting to me.

[Moses Botbol]

This wine is $12 a magnum; WTF do you want from it? I think it's a good value for daily drinker; summer party wine. The 2005 was "solid" and held up well. Terras Tomas Ribeiro Dao is a better for a similar price bracket. Charamba is quite popular in my market.

[Andy Velebil]

It's all yours Moses. Lol


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[Moses Botbol]

It's all yours Moses. Lol


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What magnum for $12 would you serve at then? Not every occasion calls for Barca Velha...

[Andy Velebil]

Id pay a tad more for bottles of something like a basic Crasto or Casa Ferreirinha a few more bucks isn't going to break the bank and the drinking pleasure goes up exponentially.


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[Moses Botbol]

Id pay a tad more for bottles of something like a basic Crasto or Casa Ferreirinha a few more bucks isn't going to break the bank and the drinking pleasure goes up exponentially.


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Anyone can say that for any wine, but paying more is not always an option with Charamba's intended consumer. Don't forget, I pictured 5L jugs of Portuguese wines before that are very popular around here. Would I personally just pay more for Crasto, Casa Ferreirinha, Altano, Cado, Duas Quintas? Sure, but at Charamba's price point, it's solid.

[Eric Menchen]

No surprise here, but it was overpriced at the airport. I agree with Andy's take that it is an industrial wine. If you want something cheap to put out for a party, it isn't unreasonable. For a party in Colorado, however, I'll put out beer instead

[Mahmoud Ali]

I haven't had a bottle of the Charamba in over a decade. I thought it was pretty decent when it first arrived on the market over here in Edmonton - had decent reviews too. I feel certain that it was a blend back then and certainly not Touriga Nacional.

Many years ago, in 2000/2001, when I spent about 8 months in Australia, I had gotten pretty tired of the Shiraz, Cabernet, Grenache and GSM merry-go-round. Any foreign wine was a welcome relief even cheap Bordeaux Superiore. Well, one day, in a Coonawarra bottle shop after a day or two of cellar door tasting I came across a decade-old Charamba, probably an '90 or '91 vintage. Although the price was in the mid- to high-teens I just had to have it.

It was chilly at that time of the year and we were camping. We had the Charamba with a beef or kangaroo stew cooked on our camping stove and relished the old world faded flavours of a rustic but savoury wine.

Ay Caramba!

[Andy Velebil]

I haven't had a bottle of the Charamba in over a decade. I thought it was pretty decent when it first arrived on the market over here in Edmonton - had decent reviews too. I feel certain that it was a blend back then and certainly not Touriga Nacional.

Many years ago, in 2000/2001, when I spent about 8 months in Australia, I had gotten pretty tired of the Shiraz, Cabernet, Grenache and GSM merry-go-round. Any foreign wine was a welcome relief even cheap Bordeaux Superiore. Well, one day, in a Coonawarra bottle shop after a day or two of cellar door tasting I came across a decade-old Charamba, probably an '90 or '91 vintage. Although the price was in the mid- to high-teens I just had to have it.

It was chilly at that time of the year and we were camping. We had the Charamba with a beef or kangaroo stew cooked on our camping stove and relished the old world faded flavours of a rustic but savoury wine.

Ay Caramba!

Nice story, thanks for sharing. Any Aussie wines that really stood out (sorry for slight thread drift that may happen)

[Brian C.]

It's $8 at Binny's here. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff here has the extra layer of cost to get here from the importer's warehouse out east. I just have to patiently wait until Binny's gets tired of looking at its Portuguese wines on its shelves and hope that I am in the store when it happens.

[Mahmoud Ali]

I haven't had a bottle of the Charamba in over a decade. I thought it was pretty decent when it first arrived on the market over here in Edmonton - had decent reviews too. I feel certain that it was a blend back then and certainly not Touriga Nacional.

Many years ago, in 2000/2001, when I spent about 8 months in Australia, I had gotten pretty tired of the Shiraz, Cabernet, Grenache and GSM merry-go-round. Any foreign wine was a welcome relief even cheap Bordeaux Superiore. Well, one day, in a Coonawarra bottle shop after a day or two of cellar door tasting I came across a decade-old Charamba, probably an '90 or '91 vintage. Although the price was in the mid- to high-teens I just had to have it.

It was chilly at that time of the year and we were camping. We had the Charamba with a beef or kangaroo stew cooked on our camping stove and relished the old world faded flavours of a rustic but savoury wine.

Ay Caramba!

Nice story, thanks for sharing. Any Aussie wines that really stood out (sorry for slight thread drift that may happen)

Andy, sorry for taking so long in replying.

There were plenty of good wines at the Coonawarra cellar doors. I was there in 2001 and the red wines on offer then were mostly from the '98 and '99 vintages. The wineries I visited were:

Balnaves
Bowen Estates
Katnook
Lindemans
Majella
Redman
Rymill
Wynns
Zema Estate

Balnaves: What I recall most about Balnaves was meeting some staff from the nearby Leconfield. My partner and I had been to Adelaide and the McLaren Vale and the conversation turned to the Richard Hamilton wines and their cellar door. I remarked that I really enjoyed the '98 Burton's Vineyard Grenache but was keen to get my hands on the Marion Vineyard wine from the only extant urban vineyard in Adelaide. The Marion community owns the vineyard but Richard Hamilton makes the wines. Well, the next thing I know one of Leconfield employees says that there is a bottle of the '95 Marion's Vineyard that has been in their lab for a number of years. He said he wasn't sure how long it had been there or wether it was going to be any good but that I was welcome to have it. Soon enough I was the proud owner of the bottle.

I took this bottle home to Edmonton and many years later, probably in '10/11, it turned out to be a delightful bottle, earthy, savoury, and fully resolved.

Bowen Estates: The '99 Cabernet and Shiraz were good, the blend a little weak, but the surprise for me was the Chardonnay. I cannot recall the vintage but I thought it was very nice, well judged oak and fruit balance and probably the most convincing Chardonnay of my Coonawarra visit.

Katnook: The reds were good but the standout was the '98 Prodigy, their premium Shiraz.

Lindemans: Most memorable here were the '98 vintage of all three of their premium wines, the Pyrus, Limestone Ridge, and St. George. They were all very good, definitely cellaring style wines with plenty of depth and intensity.

Majella: Once again, fine well-made red wines, but what I recall with fondness was their distinctive sparkling Shiraz, intense and young, a nice balance between fruit and tannins, with a judicious use of oak. A very nice style.

Redman: The highlight here was a cellar door 1997 Pinot Noir. It was a limited production wine and the grapes were made the old fashioned way - foot trodden. It was medium-bodied, savoury and dry, very dry, with a finish that was leathery and savoury. This is what make cellar door experiences so distinctive.

Rymill: The reds here were much less fruity and forward, they were older than the wines on offer at other cellar door indicating longer aging but with less new oak. More savoury in style.

Wynn's: The stars of the show were the '98 Michael and John Riddock. Despite asking for my pour first and letting it air while I tasted through the range they remained firm and unevolved in the glass. Excellent wines and very memorable.

Very special and for sale were bottles of '96 or '98 Wynn's Oven Valley Shiraz. Unfortunately they were not on tasting. I had only recently bought some 1990 so I decided not to buy any, a decision I now regret.

Zema Estate: This family-owned winery was the only winery that still hand-harvested their grapes. We thought all their '99 reds were good, the Cab, Shiraz and their Cluny blend. The '98 Family Reserve Cab was even better.

Cheers..........Mahmoud.

[Andy Velebil]

Thanks for the notes!