4.5 Review: Adega de Borba Reserva Red
How do you choose a wine? Do you tend to think of a specific variety, like a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot? Or do you think about blends?
In my opinion, blends are too often overlooked in the United States — although their popularity is growing. While varietal wines certainly have their place, blends have some advantages. Winemakers can do a number of things in the vineyard and with their production techniques to shape a varietal wine. But blending gives winemakers another tool. Different grape varieties bring different characteristics, which can be combined, like a chef uses ingredients in a recipe, to build a specific expression in a wine.
Blends have a long history in European wine. In Portugal’s Alentejo region, blends have been the predominant approach to wine for over 2,000 years. The region has over 250 indigenous grape varieties! So they have a lot of options to work with when approaching blends.
This blend, from Adega de Borba, features four grape varieties: Aragonez (known as Tempranillo outside Portugal), Alicante Bouschet, Castelão and Trincadeira. When blending these grapes, the Aragonez establishes the foundation and is fairly neutral. The Alicante Bouschet provides spice and earthiness, as well as structure — think mouthfeel, tannins and astringency. The Castelão brings bright fruit and acidity, as well as additional tannins. And the Trincadeira adds herbal aromatics.
You can see how these different grapes would work well together in a blend. It’s interesting to explore a wine like this and look for the influence of the different grape varieties.
This wine also spent 12 months in 3-4 year old oak barrels, adding additional structure and spice to the wine.
Tasting Notes
Red fruit abounds on the nose of this wine, offering cherry, raspberry and red plum aromas along with herbal, tobacco and baking spice fragrances. The palate delivers a beautiful balance of bright cherry, jammy raspberry, ripe red plum, black pepper and black tea flavors. Good acidity makes the flavors quite vibrant. The mouthfeel is rich and offers a tea-like astringency from the tannins. The finish is very long, with red berry and spice flavors lasting for minutes.
Wine: Adega de Borba, Reserva Red
Varieties: Aragonez (aka Tempranillo), Alicante Bouschet, Castelão and Trincadeira
Vintage: 2015
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 90
Average price: $18.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.
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