Winemaker Notes
The Redoma Tinto 2017 has plenty of individuality to offer, with a splendid concentrated purple color and deeply austere aromas. Complex and profound spicy notes are complemented by the subtle vegetal hints which are so typical of the Tinta Amarela grape variety. Its expressive nose also shows floral notes which harmonize superbly with the wine’s minerality. The Redoma offers good palate weight with a distinct elegance thanks to its firm acidity and pleasant hints from the inclusion of stalks. Despite the wine’s youth, it already shows fantastic precision and great balance due to the long barrel maturation period. The finish is very long and persistent – this is a wine which will certainly age beautifully in the bottle.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Redoma is a field blend of typical grapes aged for 20 months in large and old wooden vats. It comes in at just 13% alcohol. This was the final blend and out of cask, but it was a couple of weeks from bottling when seen. Not showing any more stuffing than the Vertente, this does show more finesse. It has silky texture and impressive lift to the fruit. The structure here is better too, and that lift makes this fresh red a wine that will be a pleasure to drink. It's enlivening and almost mouthwatering. It will pair perfectly with food and age effortlessly. You can drink this young, as it is very refined, but the power does come out with air, so that would be a mistake. Giving it a few years in the cellar would be nice, for it and for you.
Range: 94-96 -
James Suckling
Lots of dark berries, black cherries and blackberries with just a note of olives. Full-bodied with plenty of fruit, yet there’s freshness and vibrancy with a nice, linear flow running through it. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
A harmonious, minerally red, with fresh currant and pomegranate notes infused with tea, anise, savory herb, woodsy spice and floral accents. More restrained in profile, but distinctive. Moderate, integrated tannins. Tinta Amarela, Touriga Franca, Rufete, Tinta Roriz and Tinto Cão. Drink now through 2025.
With hundreds of red grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended red wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged resulting in a wide variety of red wine styles. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a red wine blend variety that creates a fruity and full-bodied wine would do well combined with one that is naturally high in acidity and tannins. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
How to Serve Red Wine
A common piece of advice is to serve red wine at “room temperature,” but this suggestion is imprecise. After all, room temperature in January is likely to be quite different than in August, even considering the possible effect of central heating and air conditioning systems. The proper temperature to aim for is 55° F to 60° F for lighter-bodied reds and 60° F to 65° F for fuller-bodied wines.
How Long Does Red Wine Last?
Once opened and re-corked, a bottle stored in a cool, dark environment (like your fridge) will stay fresh and nicely drinkable for a day or two. There are products available that can extend that period by a couple of days. As for unopened bottles, optimal storage means keeping them on their sides in a moderately humid environment at about 57° F. Red wines stored in this manner will stay good – and possibly improve – for anywhere from one year to multiple decades. Assessing how long to hold on to a bottle is a complicated science. If you are planning long-term storage of your reds, seek the advice of a wine professional.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.