“Both of these seem kind of stiff,” I confessed to Rui Martins of Herdade da Comporta. We were standing by the winery’s tasting room window, which looks out over the surrounding salt marsh. In addition to a winery, Herdade da Comporta also happens to be a rice farm, and much of the marsh is planted with their rice paddies. Martins and I were drinking the 2014 bottlings of Chão das Rolas Branco and Herdade da Comporta Branco, neither of which are on the market yet, and neither of which had much to say to me. “When were they bottled?” I asked.
“Two days ago,” Martins replied, nonchalantly.
“Wow! No wonder they’re so tight.” These two aren’t bad wines—they just don’t know what they want to be when they grow up.
Fortunately, the ’14 Brancos will have plenty of time to develop in bottle before their release, and the winery has quite a few wines that are drinking great now—and that will continue to improve even more. In exceptional vintages, Herdade da Comporta produces Comporta, their top tier wine. We didn’t try the most recent Comporta—the 13 Branco—but instead to the Comporta 10 Tinto, an unfiltered Alicante Bouschet from sandy vineyards just three miles from the coast. While the grape was invented in France in 1866, Alicante Bouschet has become one of Portugal’s more popular red varietals for its high yields, thick skin (a useful defense against rough ocean winds), and sexy dark color.
Most red grapes contain white juice, and most red wines are only red because of prolonged skin contact, but Alicante is one of the few varietals that bleeds red, making for inky, opaque wines. Comporta 10 Tinto was aged for 18 months in 100% new French oak barrels, resulting in a powerfully oaky nose: lots of vanilla, along with tones of prune and boysenberry. The palate is thick with mineral notes and dark fruit—blackberry jam and apple stroop—plus a saltiness from the oceanic influence of the Atlantic. The wine is full-bodied, with medium-high acid and coarse, spicy tannins. I’d pair this black beauty with squid ink pasta, or as Martins suggested, pumpkin-mushroom risotto or roasted pork fillet with honey orange marinade.
Check out Herdade da Comporta online at http://www.herdadedacomporta.pt/en/
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