AJ | Just a little darker than its Carcavelos peer: bright russet amber. Less refined, aromatically, than the younger wine and indeed for me not wholly successful: beef, earth and grape must, with warm compost in the background. Disarming. Not offputting, but not inviting either. In the mouth it is generous and tangy though less pristine and refined than its peer. Perhaps it makes up a little with its more exuberant welath of flavour, the fruits here offset by burnt toffee as well as fruit acidity. Drink Dates: 2025 - 2028. 86
SF | Burnished bronze, without the green tinge of the 2012, but deeper concentration and less gradation on the rim. Rather a monolithic palate, with hints of toffee apple and caramel, bitumen and licorice, fewer high note and less inherent interest than the 2010. The lower ABV does not signal approachability rather the sense of faded potential and a sense of what might have been. Perfectly agreable but far from perfect. An interesting example nonetheless. Drink Dates: 2025 - 2028. 90
RM | Mid-deep amber with a green glint; a slightly rustic casky overtone on the nose which gives way to honey, beeswax and some smoky-toasty complexity; rich honeyed depth with a toasted savoury edge and a surprisingly soft mellifluous finish always with that touch of rusticity. Drink Dates: 2025 - 2032. 89