Giz Vinhas das Cavaleiras 2020

Deep and concentrated, black and blue fruits such as blackcurrants, plums, and honeysuckle berries predominate. Some red fruits emerge as it evolves in the glass, along with black pepper and allspice. Everything is very concentrated: flavor, acidity, structure, and texture, lingering on the finish.

Aroma of beautiful intensity and purity of fruit, although more “black” than usual. Depth and elegance all its own. Opulence, solidity, and sophistication in the mouth. Never heavy. Rich in flavors, long. Tannins and acidity promise a long future. MM

There's also a single-vineyard red, the 2020 Vinha das Cavaleiras, from an old plot, the first acquired for the project, a centenary plot of head-pruned Baga on stony limestone soils where yields are very low (3,000 kilos per hectare). The wine has concentration and structure, ripeness and 14.5% alcohol, with clout but still with traces of acid berries, a pH of 3.4 and notable acidity, 6.8 grams (measured in tartaric acid per liter of wine). It started fermenting in open lagar and finished in 600-liter French oak barrels, 60% of them new, for 20 months. Despite the high percentage of new wood, the wine is not oaky and seems to have digested it well. There's a mixture of old style and modernity, of rusticity and elegance that I like. It's serious and should age nicely in bottle. 1,400 bottles were filled in June 2022. This is unusually high in alcohol. I tasted the 2018 next to it, and the label stated 12.5% alcohol; and that wine is fresh and vibrant, elegant and spectacular and would score higher than this today. I also tasted the initial 2015, which showed well but without the precision of the latest vintages, a little more rustic.