Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo Grande Reserva Touriga Nacional 2009

The 2009 GRANDE RESERVA 'TOURIGA NACIONAL' was aged in a mixture of new and old French oak. It is the all Touriga counterpart to the winery's 'Classico' Grande Reserva blend. It is quite aromatic, showing its oak a bit, but also very focused and elegant, with the promise of grace and harmony to come. There is nothing overbearing about this wine in this big vintage, but it changes dramatically in an hour or so, becoming purer and more impressive, showing its fruit and structure rather than its oak. Its balance seems ultimately impeccable, while it nonetheless displays a backbone, needing a couple of years to show better. For every 30 minute interval that I had this open, the score ticked up. This is pretty hard to resist and it should improve with cellaring. The price point may scare many off, but divorced from that, the wine is pretty fine. There were 5,300 bottles produced. Drink now-2023. Score - 92. (Mark Squires, erobertparker.com, Dec. 2011)