WTN: Cortes de Cima

I had a chance to sample this wine last night at a local winestore. Tons of sediment floating throughout and obvious travel-shock, this winery has a cult following in Europe it would appear. 100% Touriga Nacional sounds interesting.

TN: `03 Cortes de Cima, Alentejano---Hans Jorgensen.

Very deep reddish colour with an inky centre. I found very little colouration on the rim. Huge legs here. The nose was ripe with some vanilla, blackberry, redcurrant and cocoa. New oak on the palate but tannins did not overpower. Very good balance here with red berries and maybe boysenberry (?). It was all quite ripe and very fruit forward but perhaps too "international" in style. But one has to remember this is a style in vogue right now. Wine reminded me of the Esperao that is also highly regarded. Has HRH Bob reviewed this one?

Cost will be around $40 Cdn, outrageous!

*** Big day today! Go look for that cardinal here in town, watch Juve v. Arsenal and open a `96 Tronquoy-Lalande for WT 101.

(Edited by Robin to remove duplicates.)

Help, Help..............Robin help!!
Now you guys know who you have to deal with here. LOL

Bob, have you sampled the Crasto single varietals? Also horribly priced in the high 70s Canadian, but they are nonetheless wines of quality and distinction. They do Tinta Cao, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional.

I wish they weren't so good as I am always tempted to buy them. They are among the best I have tasted from Portugal.

Sadly, what you cite is frequent now - a decent Portuguese wine that the producer fancies and sticks a high price on and will probably sell, especially if they can garner a decent review from one of the usual pundits. All the while equally good wines are available for maybe half the price.

I have not seen those Crasto wines, but there is a port here. My fav. wine store has a very good selection from Portugal, from $20 to $70 plus.

The wines from Cortes de Cima -- especially the "regular" wine of which you posted -- are indeed overpriced. When I used to import them, they were around $12 (US). Then they started with the "Incognito," which was Syrah but that was illegal in the Alentejao and couldn't appear on the label, so their then-UK importer and I told them to do the back label with drop-capped paragraphs to look something like

So
You
Really
Are
Here

That worked, so then they wanted $30+ for their wines, and as for the rest -- well, let's just say they have gone through several importers.

Cheers,
Jason

[Robin Garr]

Great story, Jason ... and good to see you here!