LBV 2010
The 2010 Late Bottled Vintage Port is mostly a Big Three blend of Touriga Nacional (30%), Touriga Franca (25%) and Tinta Roriz (15%) with dollops of other familiar grapes in the region. Unfiltered and aged in 10,000 to 14,000 liter oak vats, it comes in at 100 grams per liter of residual sugar. Sourced from 2 Quintas in Cima Corgo (Trovisca and Alegria) and two in Douro Superior (Agodinho and Mos), it was bottled in May 2014. This will not win prizes for power or concentration, but it is a sentimental favorite in this report for a lot of reasons. Rich and chocolaty on opening and showing gorgeous fruit, this is a luscious LBV that nonetheless has penetration and nice structure underneath. It projects a feeling of fullness on the palate while it rounds into form. It is amazingly tasty. Its underlying gentility becomes more and more appealing with aeration. If it is not the most powerful and intense LBV, though it has real structure and should hold reasonably well in the cellar. I liked it more once it got to Day 2. It perhaps does nothing spectacularly well, but it does everything nicely and in harmony in an understated fashion. It should be well priced, too. Note: the label just uses “LBV.” February 2015.