CONDE D’ERVIDEIRA | Vinho da Água II | 2015
touriga nacional | tempranillo | trincadeira | alicante bouschet | cabernet sauvignon
WineStatistics will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss one. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. The logic is simple – the more we taste, the more we learn.
Tonight we are going to review a quite special wine from Portugal – Vinho da Água II 2015 by Conde d’Ervideira. This is a wine blend of touriga nacional, tempranillo, trincadeira, alicante bouschet and cabernet sauvignon and, what makes this wine so special and unique, is how it has been maturated. First, the wine has been aged a couple of months in french oak barriques, each variety individually, then, after the blend has been made, the bottles have been submerged in the calm waters of Alqueva lake, where they rested for 8 more months in unique conditions at 30m depth. But let’s not put too much emphasis on the theory side – without further ado, let’s get straight to the tasting!
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:
Visual
Deep and noble garnet color, with bright ruby shades towards the rim of the glass.
Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black fruits flavours: black cherry, black plum, blackcurrant, sour cherry, algae, black mulberry, horse saddle, forest floor, leather and wet branch wood. An instant later the nose is filled with notes of black pepper, black tea, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and some nuanced hints of cherry tree wood.
Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels tart, salty and elegant, with a nuanced fruity-mineral accent. This is a quite complex, firm yet lean wine, as it tastes crisp and maybe just a bit angular, with a supple-opulent mouthfeel. The wine has a fair overall balance, with ripe tannins and overwhelming acidity.
Aftertaste
It has a medium-plus finish and a balanced, tart and seedy aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________
This is definitely a fine Wine of Portugal and the overall rating says the same, with 90.8 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.
Conclusion: this is a quite young and extracted wine blend that is a bit off its balance – definitely still on the rise, as it requires a couple more years of bottle ageing (2 to 3 years should be enough) before it will reach its prime form. Just keep in mind that it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. Overall the wine feels elegant and maybe just a bit angular at the moment, as it tastes tart and salty, this is why, we would recommend to counter-balance all the acidity in the wine with slightly spicy dishes that are rich in natural saltiness, like for example grilled steak and shrimp combo. Cheers!
WineStatistics tasting results:
CONDE D’ERVIDEIRA
Vinho da Água II | 2015
grape: | touriga nacional | tempranillo | trincadeira | alicante bouschet | cabernet sauvignon |
overall rating: | 90.8 |
maturity: on the rise
conclusion: fine | highly recommended
___________________________________________________________________________
(c) The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.
WineStatistics 