Winemaker Notes
Complex, sophisticated and harmonious, this red is rich and pure with notes of black cherry, black currant and spice flavors with expressive minerality. On the palate is bright and focused with refined tannins, amazing fruit and terrific finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pintas is a field blend (over 40 grapes, but the dominant grapes are Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional) from old vines (around 90 years) aged for 20 months in 20% new French oak. It comes in at 14.5% alcohol. What can you say about Pintas in all its glory? Big and expressive fruit is the first thing you'll take note of. Yet the second thing changes the opinion on and character of this wine. It's not even close to a fruit bomb. Its structure controls it, making it fresh, precise and lively, never jammy and ponderous. Then, it shows off some serious power. The winery's style generally eschews astringency (except at times on the Port), but there's certainly a fair bit of power on that finish. This is built to age and develop. It's delicious but not one-dimensional. It isn't even close to showing everything it has just now. While not completely unapproachable, it will show a lot better in a few years. It may not hit peak for 10.
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Wine Enthusiast
This major wine is, as always, impressive and agewor- thy. Dark tannins infused with minerality and layers of black fruits are powerful. At the same time, they have elegance to balance the great richness. Age this wine and drink.
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Wine Spectator
High-toned and floral on the nose, this expressive red offers a lovely core of crushed black and red berry and cherry fruit underscored by a rich streak of loamy minerality. Tightly meshed, with dense tannins providing weight and definition, while accents of garrigue, balsamico and spice box lend fine detail. Like a racehorse at the gate, this is raring to go. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Rufete.
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James Suckling
This has aromas of dried herbs, plums and blackberries. Iodine, gravy and spice box, too. Savory and flavorful with a full body and chewy, firm tannins. So much packed in here. Needs some time to soften.
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Wine & Spirits
The 90-year-old vines at Pintas produce a concentrated Vale Mendiz red, Douro on a grand scale in terms of size, richness and density. The wine’s fruit tannins have a cherry-pit or plum-pit savor, the mineral power of old-vine fruit grown in schist, the black cherry and purple fruit of mixed Portuguese varieties.
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.