Score: 92/100
This red wine by Heredade de São Miguel comes from the Alentejo region in south-central Portugal.
It is made from a grape variety that is not often bottled on it own as a varietal wine, but most commonly used in blends.
Alicante Bouschet (also known as Alicante Henri Bouschet, and sometimes referred to as simply Alicante or simply Bouschet) is a ‘teinturier’ grape variety, meaning that not only its skin is dark, but its flesh and juice also contain dark purple pigments. Alicante Bouschet is therefore sometimes used to provide more color wine intensity into blends.
Briefly, and just for the story, Alicante Bouschet is a cross between Petit Bouschet (itself a cross bread of an old French variety du Cher and Aramon) and Grenache.
So how good is Alicante Bouschet on its own?
Or more, precisely, how good a wine Alexandre Relvas has been able to make out of this relatively rare or at least unusual grape variety?
The answer is in the Tasting Notes
This Portuguese Alicante comes, somewhat as expected, in a very very dark and intense red color. Truly an outstanding color intense, and you can notice it as soon as you pour it into your glass, it’s looking incredibly dark, and filled with profound hues of purple red.
The nose is intense and powerful as well, extremely fruity, but also dark-scented. Big powerful notes of blackberry jam and quince, marry intense notes of torrefaction, coffee and dark chocolate. There is additionally a wealth of vanilla and sweet caramel, mixed with clear oaky notes. Clove and black pepper spice things up too!
Deep, ripe, generous, spicy and powerful to smell at, and certainly complex!
The palate feels super-soft and smooth, round and full-bodied as soon as you put the wine in your mouth. Generous jammy mixed berries flavors please your senses with a powerful fruity generosity. The wine is dry though, with velvety tannins and moderate acidity.
The whole feels rich, filed with vanilla, caramel and roasted hazelnut notes. But prominent clove and nutmeg spiced flavors give also a sense of concentrated savory spiciness.
Overall
A very pleasing and satisfying ripe red wine is the Alicante Bouschet by Heredade de São Miguel. Opulent and generous, it is filled with a dense yet soft tannic structure, delivering a wealth of ripe berries and jammy notes, complexified, deepened and spiced up by touches of pepper and controlled oaky tones.
Enjoy 🙂
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