Filipa Pato Touriga Nacional 2011 for Bottle Apostle, Bairrada, Portugal

When Filipa Pato had a barrel of Touriga Nacional going, the enterprising chaps at Bottle Apostle snapped it up and put in on their shelves as a special bottling. Always a sucker, for a one-off, I picked one up, aware that the wine was really meant as a part of a blend that just didn’t get used. The question begs - why not?
This is quite a moody, brooding wine on the nose with over-ripe blackberries, milk chocolate, liquorice, nutmeg and green peppercorns. There’s a sense of black forest gateaux and quite a thick slab of oak if I’m honest. There’s also a little cool mint and floral sweetness around the edges though. The palate starts with some nice acidity, with thick blackberry fruit and a serious, but not overwhelming seam of tannin. It’s quite abrupt and without the elegance that I’ve come to expect from modern Portugal, and I find the oak a bit obvious. But then again, what do you expect? It’s an interesting drop but it does feel like one piece of a puzzle.

Niepoort The Senior Tawny, Portugal

Brilliantly pitched port from Niepoort. In-between a tawny and ruby in colour - it’s going slightly rusty around the edges but still vibrantly red at heart. The nose is alive with juicy raisins soaked in good spirit (I’ve written calvados here, and I was definitely picking up a little apple), spicy agen prunes, pine resin and green peppercorn, all wrapped in a nutty light muscovado sweetness. The palate is quite open and sweet at first, then some grip and acidity builds and savoury nutty grip cuts through the pruney sweetness. That caramel flavour of brown sugar lingers with some bright, wild damson acidity. Complex stuff - an marriage of classic tawny flavours and fresher, more ruby-like fun.

Niepoort LBV 2004

This was one of the first wines I bought from the Bottle Apostle, my local wine shop in Hackney, back in 2009. Previous experiences of this wine had indicated that it would enjoy a bit of time somewhere cool and quiet, and since we had just acquired the use of a cellar, I put it down there for a few years. I have had a Niepoort LBV that was aged too long post-bottling before, and I've also had one that was almost like drinking a young vintage port, so 8 years from harvest seemed to be a decent compromise.
It came up at first all animals and cooked blueberries, but this is not a wine to pop and pour....after a couple of hours it came to life with big roasted walnuts, dried cherries and more blueberry and prune sweetness, dusted in nutmeg. There's lovely presence to the palate, which still says 'young' wine with its forward fruit character, yet the warmth of walnut and fudge is just creeping in. This is a LBV in a different league to most!

Conceito Contraste 2008, Douro, Portugal

Drank this with dinner at The Empress in Victoria park, which is fast becoming one of our favourite spots (largely because of the charcuterie, which is of pretty stupendous quality). If you take a bottle from the local wine shop, Bottle Apostle, down on a Monday night you can drink for no corkage. I love a bit of local cross-pollination.
This is all about suave, perhaps even a little creamy blackberry and cherry fruit, lightly dusted with savoury spice. It seems quite pure and light in character at first, but there is some grip and backbone here for sure - it sat really well amongst our plates of ham, peppers, chorizo, even squid...love it. Will try again when I'm concentrating more.