Rubi, reflexos de granada. Notas de couro, fumo e fruto desidratado. Menos empolgante por comparativo direto com os imediatos sucessores, tem garra e sensação final de fumo no fecho. Será feitio ou fase? Os próximos anos dirão.

The 2004 Colheita Tawny Port is a field blend, roughly Touriga Franca (35%), Tinta Roriz (20%), Touriga Nacional (15%), Tinta Barroca (10%) and others, bottled in 2018 with a long cork and 100 grams of residual sugar. Lean and focused, this tawny, in the house style, has a darker color than most tawnies. Don’t be confused—it’s still a tawny. Just bottled about a month before tasting, this showed well, but there was a slightly eccentric nuance, perhaps a touch of volatile acidity. Only a touch, though. It still drank nicely, with a good finish and some notable power for a relatively young tawny.

From Quinta Vale d’Agodinho: Touriga Franca 35%, Tinta Roriz 20%, Touriga Nacional 15%, Tinta Barroca 10%, Tinto Cão 8%, others 12%. ‘The spring of 2004 was dry and sunny and that gave us a good quantity of grapes on the vines. August was very hot on the beginning of the month and wet with lower temperatures during the end of the month and beginning of September, this made slowing down the maturation of the grapes so we start the harvest on the middle of September. Totally destemmed grapes followed by a slow fermentation with temperature control up to 27 °C.’ Bottled unfiltered August 2019. TA 3.92 g/l, pH 3.53, RS 90 g/l. Try with chocolate, dried fruits, crème brûlée, suggests Oscar Quevedo Jr. Browny brick colour, orangey at the rim. Complex aromas of undergrowth, dried fruits such as figs and raisins, sweet spice, reduced-down apricots. Baking spices. On the palate, nutty, some burnt caramel giving both sweet and tangy freshness. Deep and long and so silky even though there is still some tannin on the finish. Juicy and mouth-watering, lingering dried-apricot sweetness. The spirit is fully integrated and not noticeable in the whole. Lovely Colheita style. It’s ready to drink now but there’s no rush even if it is unlikely to improve in the bottle.