Winemaker Notes
Deep concentrated ruby color. Enticing aroma of black fruits and a well balanced minerality with the spicy notes from aging in barrel. Well structured tannins and balanced acidity, allowing a good bottle aging.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Foot trodden in stone lagars, this wine expresses the power and richness of Alicante Bouschet. It shows dense tannins and concentrated black fruits contrasted by bright acidity that rises up on the finish. Drink from 2023. Shiverick Imports.
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Wine & Spirits
This grows at a block of 40-year-old vines on the sandy schist and granite soils of Vidigueira. The grapes are foot-trodden in lagares, with fermentation allowed to start spontaneously. Then its black-cherry flavors pick up some caramelization from a year in oak barrels (40 percent new). It’s heady and relatively soft for the variety, the ripe tannins unlocking red cherry and blueberry flavors as the wine opens with air. Pour it with something hearty but lean, like a pork tenderloin.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Alicante Bouschet was aged for one year in 40% new French oak. It comes in at 15.1% alcohol. Big and dense, this has fairly ripe tannins, notwithstanding some grip on the finish, but also very ripe fruit. The beefy nuances around the edges give this some complexity. In a similar style to the monovarietal Touriga reviewed this report, this seems like the better wine. This Alicante has better structure and more concentration. Of course, it also has all that Alicante personality and it is another $8. So reasonable minds might differ on what choice to make. This should age decently for several years, but the tannins are ripe enough so you can approach this now without a problem. It's worth leaning up for the moment, but this does have to demonstrate it can age a bit to justify my current enthusiasm.
The most famous of the rare, red-fleshed grape varieties, Alicante Bouschet is known as a Teinturier grape. While most red grapes have red skin but clear flesh or pulp, the French, Alicante Bouschet and the Georgian (country) variety called, Saperavi, both have red. These make intensely hued, full-bodied red wines that take to oak well and can stand some time in the cellar. Somm Secret—While originally the product of a French crossing (Petit Bouschet and Grenache) of the late 1800s, today Alicante Bouchet grows widely in Spain and is gaining notoriety in Portugal.
Responsible for a majority of Portugal’s fine wine production—and over half of the world’s cork production—Alentejo represents a major force in Portugal’s wine industry. This southern Portugese region is characterized by stretches of rolling plains and vineyards dotted with majestic cork oaks. Access to land enables the farmers of Alentejo to produce wines in great economies of scale, without compromising quality, compared to those regions to the north. The region of Alentejo indeed covers a third of the country.
Its classified (DOP) wines must come from one of eight subregions, where elevations are a bit higher, air cooler and less fertile soils are perfect for vines. The optimal regions are Portalegre, Borba, Redondo, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Granja-Amareleja, Vidigueira, Evora and Moura. Alentejo is not without the conveniences of modern winemaking as well. Irrigation supplements low rainfall and temperature control in the winery assures high quality wines.
The potential of the area has attracted many producers and its wine production continues to grow. Alentejo’s charming, fruit-forward wines have naturally led to local and global popularity.
White wines tend to be blends of Antão Vaz, Roupeiro and Arinto. However, in growing proportions, the white grapes Verdelho, Alvarinho and Viognier have been enjoying success. But red varieties actually exceed whites in Alentejo. Aragonez, Trincadeira, Alicante Bouschet and Castelão grapes blend well together and are responsible for most of the Alentejo reds.