Color: dark red, violet, good depth.
Nose: Exiting nose, I am using a Riedel Bordeaux Grand Cru glass, because the Riedel Chianti/Zinfandel glass was to small to give this wine the complex picture it has.
Mature dark berries like black cherry and black plum, and very ripe blackberry. Smells a lot of cedar, coffee, mocca and licorice. Herbs. Some flowers, some animalistic tones like blood from grouse. A lot of minerals going on more metallic tones like boiled egg ( reductiv ), but the taste is perfect without the egg tones.
Palate: Full bodied, rich taste, concentrated mature and yet acid fruit, great balance, good structure of very fine tannins and balancing acidity, long fresh finsih, tasting all the elements in the wine, very nyanced and clear aromas. Seems oaked but has not been aged in wood at all, a lot of minerals.
Foodmatch: Allround red meat, lamb, cow, game. careful with mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese beacuse of the metallic minerals.
Cellaring: I guess 0-5 years.
Amazing QPR from one of the best winemakers in Portugal, if not the best. He makes magic from local grapes in Bairrada and Däo. These two regions together are called Beiras, from which the grapes for this wine are harvested.
The grape Baga in the hands of the producer Luis Pato can be very longlived, we are talking 50 years or more, like great wines from Bordeaux, and of course at a much lower price.
I had the pleasure to be invited to Mr. Luis Patos private house in Bairrada in 2002. We had an unforgettable tasting of many of his white and red wines, young and old. Some of his whites are also getting better with some years of storage.
His wines and great hospitality, the view from his terrace and pool, overlooking his Bairrada wine fields, is forever burned into my mind.
The guy is quite exentric, but in a good way. He is a front person in enviorment issues and a person that makes both modern and classic wines, while never forgetting the traditional way. He is making the best BAGA wines in the world.
I just had to get this info of my heart. Thanks.
