Herdade do Mouchao Tinto 2013
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Robert
Parker
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The Estate’s flagship wine was first bottled in 1949. Sourced predominantly from the Estate’s best Alicante Bouschet grapes from the Carapetos, Ponte das Canas and Dourada vineyards, with up 15% of other local varieties – mainly Trincadeira – grown on the Estate. The latter provides an important aromatic component as Alicante Bouschet’s primary aromas are naturally shy.
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Decanter
From this large region’s most historic estate, 70% of the blend is Alicante Bouschet, showing exotically spicy black fruit aromas leading to structure and depth on the palate, great individuality, and freshness and acidity for the long term. Excellent. Drinking Window 2018 - 2030.
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Wine & Spirits
The Reynolds family released their first bottling from their Mouchão estate in 1949, and it soon became a legendary wine in Portugal. The family had come to the Alentejo in the 1800s, as part of the cork trade, and settled on a ranch northeast of Estremoz, eventually planting vines in the 1870s when some professors from Montpellier traveled to the region with cuttings of a recent cross, alicante bouschet. This blend is a selection of the top parcels of alicante bouschet, and includes about 15 percent trincadeira, the grapes fermented in stone lagars, the wine aged in old wooden vats for three years, then another two in bottle prior to release. It starts out as a narrow, tense wine with a cool, spicy bite to the finish. Then it keeps developing over the course of hours and days, the wine’s alcohol completely incorporated into floral blueberry flavors, its youth showing in bright notes of bee pollen, more August than September or October. As it gains some fat and turns silken, the wine shows what it will become with another five to ten years in bottle.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Tinto, the regular estate bottling, is a 76/24 blend of Alicante Bouschet and Trincadeira. It was aged for 36 months in used 5,000-liter tonels of varying ages and comes in at 14% alcohol. Still elegant, this has fleshed out a bit and certainly doesn't seem thin. It does many other things brilliantly, though. Alternating silk and velvet for texture, it is simply sensual, and caressing on the palate. The nuanced finish with waves of beefy Alicante adds complexity. This is also a little restrained—the tannins are moderate, but they certainly increase with air. You can drink this now, but it should still improve and will steadily get better. This is lovely. I'm not convinced it is a truly great one yet, at least in the context of this winery's history.
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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.