Quinta do Portal Reserva Tinto 2018
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Wine Enthusiast
This powerful wine, dominated by Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz, has great richness. Wood aging still shows in the spicy character, yet a black currant flavor and bright acidity give freshness to contrast it all. Drink from 2023.
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Wine Spectator
This smoky red shows licorice-tinged notes of dark plum and boysenberry reduction, marked with undertones of mocha and dried violet. Suave tannins give this a round mouthfeel. Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca. Drink now through 2031.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Reserva is a roughly equal blend of Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz plus 15% Touriga Franca, aged for nine months in 50% new and French oak. It comes in at 14.8% alcohol (actual). This smooths out some of the rough edges on the regular Tinto in this report, and adds much riper fruit to go with its lusher texture. It's not as elegant, but it's a lot sexier. The tannins still support the fruit well. While the new wood shows too much just now, this should have the mid-palate stuffing to absorb it better in time. This needs a year, maybe two, in the cellar, but it is certainly approachable if you want to dive in now. It does need to prove it can come into better balance, but it's worth leaning up today. No matter what, it should be a nice bargain.
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Quinta do Portal is a unique family fine winemaking company based in the Douro Valley of Northern Portugal. Founded by a family of Port winegrowers who have been in the Pinhão river valley since 1881, Quinta do Portal began bottling both Ports and Douro wines in 1994. Since then, it has won multiple international prizes, including Wine & Spirits winery of the year.
Quinta do Portal wines are known to have great balance and to be very fresh and elegant, never losing structure, complexity and ageing potential. At Quinta do Portal they developed a pioneer wine and tourism project which offers visits to their cellars designed by Pritzker award winner Álvaro Siza Vieira, a restaurant led by award winner Chef Milton Ferreira, and a boutique hotel surrounded by vineyards.
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.