2016 Sandeman

The 2016 Vintage Porto is a mostly an equal blend of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, with various others comprising the last 20% of the juice. It comes in with 95 grams of residual sugar. This was in bottle about two months when tasted. Dark in color, with fine and expressive fruit, this shows intensity of flavor more than pure power. The fruit demonstrates nice lift as it opens with air. As with the Offley, this is a very nice success in this vintage, showing me fine fruit and reasonable structure. The concentration is good too, but it's not quite as impressive as the first two components. It is still excellent overall, the most exuberant of the three Sogrape Portos. We'll see how it ages and develops. For the moment, it is worth leaning up.

Cask sample. 40% Touriga Franca, 40% Touriga Nacional, 10% Tinta Roriz, 5% Tinta Cão, 5% Sousão. Plum, violet and chocolate with a hint of musky grape aromas too. Pashmina smoothness. Utter pleasure to taste – the fruit is just so pristine, yet there is spice and earthiness and even a bit of savoury umami flavour too – mushroom and soy, perhaps. Superb. (RH)