TN: 2019 Taboadella Encruzado Reserva (Dão, Portugal)

[Tomás Costa]

Six months ago I found this wine to be overoaked and one dimensional, without much interest in its underlying structure, and far less pleasurable than the entry level white Villae from the same estate, which I drank many times this year. I was pleasantly surprised by how well, and how quickly, this has integrated, and how its different elements are now allowed to shine through. The nose has great purity: chiseled, with austere white plums, flowers and damp Dão earth. The oak is still noticeable in the end palate, giving amplitude and creaminess to the acidity, but I now trust it to improve still further and become a dashing Encruzado in a couple more years.

This might just be the number one Dão 'new kid on the block' to look out for right now. Unlike many other quality oriented producers in the region, this is a big enterprise: Taboadella is a large estate owned by a large froup (the Amorins, from the eponymous cork empire and the equally great Douro estate Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo), and the wines are made by Jorge Alves, a huge 'burghead', an excellent winemaker who consistently looks for freshness and balance in his work, and an all around great guy. These should be eventually be hitting international shelves just as much as the Quinta Nova wines.