What’s up you anxiety riddled winos? This week’s post is double stacked:
We’re rolling out a “new” scoring system for the wines we review
We’re heading back to Portugal to implement that new system as we taste the country’s exceptional and, dare we say, underrated “nacional” grape: Touriga Nacional.
Why Douro? Wines from the Douro region offer excellent value (ARGUABLY THE BEST VALUE IN THE $20 RANGE ON THE PLANET), with quality examples available at moderate to severely moderate price points.
THE REGION: DOURO, PORTUGAL
Against all odds, Douro is the oldest legislated wine region in the world, located about 50 miles east of Porto, and stretching from the Marão Mountains all the way to Spain. It is a prolific wine region, producing the country’s famed fortified Port wines, as well as excellent unfortified dry red wines using the same 5 principal varieties: Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Tinta Barroca, Tinta Cão, and the hero of this weeks’s story: Touriga Nacional. They also produce great white wines and excellent olive oil, but we aren’t going “waste our time” on those other pleasantries today.
To dive deeper into the region, check out our last post on Douro.
Touriga Nacional is the “flagship” red grape variety from the unassuming Iberian nation of “Portugal,” where it plays a significant role in the production of Douro red wines (both dry, unfortified red wines and Port wines). It is the best known and arguably highest quality varietal grown in the Douro (IF NOT THE WORLD). It gives low yields of intensely flavored and darkly colored grapes, producing powerful and complex wines that often show notes of violets, blueberries, blackberries, wet stone, and dark chocolate.
DID YOU KNOW… Touriga Nacional is known for its small berries, which result in a high “skin-to-juice ratio,” contributing to the bold tannins and deep color of the wines.
These full-bodied wines are characterized by their deep color, high tannin content, and concentrated fruit flavors, with fine-grained tannins that provide excellent structure for aging (LIKE TODAY’S YOUTH). Their remarkable aging potential, akin to that of Cabernet Sauvignon (AND TODAY’S YOUTH), allow them to develop complex flavors of leather, tobacco, and desiccated violets over time. While single-varietal Touriga Nacional wines are produced (like the extremely wholesome bottles we “explore” today), it is more commonly blended with other locally grown varieties which can help balance the wine's boldness and add layers of complexity.
The Touriga Nacional vines of the Douro region thrive on steep, unirrigated, schist-based vineyards (UNLIKE ME), which contributes to the production of small, highly concentrated grapes.
Last, but not least, you’ll be absolutely thrilled to learn that Touriga Nacional has a long history, dating back to ancient times (LIKE ME!).
THE VINTAGES: 2018 & 2019
This week we reviewed 2 vintages of the Quinta Das Carvalhas Touriga Nacional. Here’s a little snapshot of what Wine Spectator had to say about those years in Douro.
Vintage report from WineSpectator:
THE WINERY: QUINTA DAS CARVALHAS
Quinta das Carvalhas is owned by “Real Companhia Velha,” which is the oldest wine company in Portugal, operating continuously since the beginning of time (1756 AD).
Quinta das Carvalhas is predominantly positioned on the left bank of the Douro River in Pinhão, extending along the slopes of the right bank of the tributary, the Torto River. Many of its vineyards, which were planted post-phylloxera, are now over a century old (LIKE ME).
NEW SCORING SYSTEM
We’ve talked about our “feelings” about the 100-point rating system in the past, but if you’ve been with us for a while you know that we’ve continued to use it because we are but humble cogs in the machine.
This week we’ve decided to roll out a more transparent (and *hopefully* standardized scoring system). We’re going to continue using a 100-point scale because it’s familiar, but we’ve added the point criteria for each category we value when scoring, and we’re adding our names to the scores so you can see which one of us reviewed the wine (if not both of us). In addition to the 100-point scale, which does not take value into account, we are adding a “Value For Money” rating to each post, so you can see whether or not we think the wine is worth your dime and/or salt.
Our 100-Point Scale
This variation of the classic 100-point scale was devised based on what we look for in a wine, and (unless otherwise stated) it will be what we use to generate our score for all of the wines we review moving forward. It’s different from how many other 100-point evaluations work and it’s definitely not perfect, but it’s meant to create a standardized system that is slightly less subjective and where you can see exactly what went into our decision. Open to criticism on this scale, berate us in the comments if you think we’re deranged for how we’ve allocated points:
40 | Balance: 40 possible points. How all the components of the wine fit together. Tannin, acid, sweetness, flavor, general harmoniousness. You know… balance.
20 | Aroma/Flavor: 20 possible points. Up to 15 points awarded if all the aromatics and flavors are all pleasant. This is an opportunity to evaluate if there is anything offensive or off-putting about the wine. Remaining 5 points for how badly we want to jump directly into the bottle and drink it from within.
15 | Concentration: 15 possible points for how concentrated/powerful the aromatics and flavors are.
15 | Length: 15 possible points for length of finish. To keep this simple, we award one point per second, up to 15 seconds.
10 | Complexity: 10 possible points for complexity. Pretty self explanatory, but a wine with lots of layers, whether from a range of aromatic/flavor clusters, or showing primary, secondary and tertiary characteristics, or a combination of those things, will score higher. 1 point per identifiable note within a cluster, up to 2 points possible per cluster (e.g. lime, lemon and grapefruit are 3 distinct notes, but would max out the citrus cluster with 2 points, rather than receiving 3 points for 3 distinct notes), and 1 point reserved for tertiary (yes, this means wines that are not age-worthy & already showing tertiary could not achieve a full 10 marks, and yes, this may not be fair).
Value For Money (out of 4)
This is basically to tell you on a scale of 1-4 how good the deal is. It looks at the interplay between quality and price, so a $20 Chianti might outscore a first growth, even if the first growth is a better wine.
The wine is bad, no price tag would make this wine worth buying again
The wine is not great for the price
The price is fair. This may mean the wine is great, but the price tag is high (think first growth Bordeaux), or the wine is decent but not amazing and the price is low.
This is an exceptional deal on a wine that I would buy any time
… AND NOW FOR THE REVIEWS (IN ORDER OF PRICE):
2018 Quinta das Carvalhas Touriga Nacional, Douro, Portugal / $21 / 93
Palate: Dry, high tannin, medium+ acid, full body, long finish
Remarkable value from a stellar vintage in the often-overlooked Douro region. Its impressive concentration of black and blue fruits is complemented by an extraordinary complexity, featuring enticing mineral, floral, and spice notes. This level of depth and richness is pretty much unparalleled at this price point.
Palate: Dry, medium+ tannin, medium+ acid, full body, long finish
Beautifully balanced wine with great concentration. Dark berry fruits with wet stone, desiccated violet, chocolate and an intriguing hint of citrus peel and verbena. Exceptional value. If you can wrap your grubby little digits around a bottle or ten, do so immediately.
Ah Touriga...the 'nacional' grape of Portugal. I've most definitely used that line before as a way to remember the grape! You're absolutely right about the crazy good value from this region's wines. You're completely wrong about you being over a century old 😂 ...your writing is far too witty and youthful (in the best way possible!!!) to be considered old. I think you very much still count as a 'youth'.
Your new scoring system looks awesome! It's so interesting how we all value elements a little differently. E.g. I rate complexity more highly than length. Concentration is another one that I'm always in two minds about...subtle can be beautiful too...but I think balance maybe erm balances this? But then again...we all know how I feel about scoring so ignore me 😂!
Love the new system - well, almost. I'm a bit unsure about "Concentration" deserving of 15 of its own points. Complexity gets its own points but not subtlety? I can think of a number of wines that I would not knock a single point off for their lack of power/concentration. That said, virtually anything with an actual system is better than the "hmm, how do I FEEL about this wine today" approach to giving it a number like there was anything mathematical about the designation.
Ah Touriga...the 'nacional' grape of Portugal. I've most definitely used that line before as a way to remember the grape! You're absolutely right about the crazy good value from this region's wines. You're completely wrong about you being over a century old 😂 ...your writing is far too witty and youthful (in the best way possible!!!) to be considered old. I think you very much still count as a 'youth'.
Your new scoring system looks awesome! It's so interesting how we all value elements a little differently. E.g. I rate complexity more highly than length. Concentration is another one that I'm always in two minds about...subtle can be beautiful too...but I think balance maybe erm balances this? But then again...we all know how I feel about scoring so ignore me 😂!
Love the new system - well, almost. I'm a bit unsure about "Concentration" deserving of 15 of its own points. Complexity gets its own points but not subtlety? I can think of a number of wines that I would not knock a single point off for their lack of power/concentration. That said, virtually anything with an actual system is better than the "hmm, how do I FEEL about this wine today" approach to giving it a number like there was anything mathematical about the designation.