2011 Esporao Reserva Tinto

The 2011 Reserva is a blend of 30% Aragonês, 30% Trincadeira, 20% Alicante Bouschet and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged for 12 months in a 70/30 mixture of new American and French oak. It comes in at 14.5% alcohol. In much of Portugal, this was a great vintage. It is certainly the star of this vertical. Fresh, balanced, concentrated, sexy and still beautifully structured, this does everything pretty brilliantly. After being open for an hour or more, it was better. Then, it kept getting better. The structure supports the fruit beautifully. This was quite a bargain. I'd like to see someone taste this blind and guess that it would be available for less than $25 on the street. There were 500,000 bottles produced.