Quinta Das Carvalhas Vintage 2004
We bought this over 18 years at the quinta for just around £20. Let's see if it was a worthwhile investment. I must say that I was pretty impressed with deep inky red colour when I started to decant it. In my experience most single quinta vintages have lost quite a bit of colour by the time they get to 20 years old. Not this one though, it resemble something at least four times what we paid for it.
The nose had fruity hints amongst the smell of ethanol. On first tasting this was a rich and full bodied port with jammy fruit flavours underlaying a distinct spiciness. There were marked aldehyde notes as well, which you may or may not like. However after a couple of hours these had disappeared leaving a quite impressive classical vintage port..As was suggested by the original observations on the colour, this wine stands its own against much more expensive offerings from the classical port houses. Which just goes to show that you don't have to spend a fortune to be able to enjoy a stunning vintage port but you may need a little patience waiting for it to mature. Now to sit back and thoroughly enjoy the rich plummy fruit flavours married to classical touriga spice.
