RED WINE - Portugal

Since it was founded in 1267, the boundaries of Herdade do Esporão have remained virtually unchanged. Located 180 kms from Lisbon, deep in the Alentejo, in Reguengos de Monsaraz.
The team is led by David Baverstock. Ex - Roseworthy and Penfolds before heading to Portugal to work at icon wineries such as Graham's, Quinta do Crasto and has taken Esporao to the title of Winery of the Year twice and has himself been named Winemaker of the Year twice, including this year.

Poor, stony soils and a tough summer climate that brings hot days and cool nights, followed by a harsh winter. Esporão currently has 194 different varieties planted, of which 37 account for virtually all production.

This is always a blend of the 4 best grapes of any vintage and changes from year to year in both compsition and percentages.

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

Touriga Nacional 40%, Aragonez 30%, Alicante Bouschet 20% and Trincadeira 10% are manually harvested in 12kg crates. It’s named after a local nun, whatever. At the winery, grapes are sorted, fully destemmed and gently crushed. After a period of cold maceration, fermentation takes place in small stainless steel tanks at 24°C, and the wines ages 6 months in French oak.

Deep ruby colour. Mace spice relieves the vanilla and black cherry density you expect here. Fluid, with good presence, but balanced without any sense of heftiness. Soft, dry, shapely, with nice structure, fresh, clean and great value. The wine has a lovely order: earthen-floral smells of the place gain skins, then fruit richness flowing along a tannin-leather thread, then tapering to finish acid-fresh and lovely.

Made in stone lagars and aged in cement tanks along with some large old wooden vats, it's a very typical Dão blend of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz (elsewhere, Tempranillo), Alfrocheiro and Jaen (aka Mencia).

A Descoberta means 'to be discovered' and the somewhat mystical label, a box tagged 1942 is a folkloric reference to an early version of a time capsule a box hidden in the stone walls of the house of Passarella containing a will to be opened 50 years hence and directing the riches of the box be re-distributed to the poor. The box was empty. Enrichment comes from the intangible not the material, it seems ...

A lovely wine supple, fleshy and spicy, with extra delicate tannin and oak. From lead-off, the cherry-chocolate fruit really shows the Dao granite, and is laden with wiry dark herbs. In the mouth, it's fleshy-meaty and mineral fresh - round with good movement and fruit-earth interplay. It has excellent presence in the mouth but is not reliant on weight for the show. Wonderfully composed, it sits and radiates, effortless in affect. Gorgeous delicate tannin is the frame, rimming the mouth and allowing the fruit and spicy acid to radiate delicately. A wonderful advertisement for varietal blends.

Fleshy (halfway between carnal and cadaver), rich and very spicy damask rose aromatics, some black bean/vanilla pod among the creamed red berries, a touch of gentian violet and oak-synthesis coffee. Coffee oak and creamed red berry are the drivers of a super-slick and not-too-tight palate. Touriga Nacional that's showy AND interesting as a straight varietal - a rare, beautiful and inexpensive example.

Youthful and pretty nose of flowers, raspberries and fresh plums. Medium-bodied, fresh and juicy, with easy tannins and a simple finish. Tinta roriz, touriga franca and touriga nacional. Drink now. JAMES SUCKLING