Esteva 2023

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 Sometimes I feel like going back to the classics. 

This feeling was probably awoken by my current reading of Gospodinov's brilliant Time Shelter.  

But what are the classics? And who has defined them?

This is, in fact, a question that I find too hard to answer as I believe that every person has its own references with which has grown and that end up being a personal classic. 

Even though it is terribly hard for me to get rid of books that I have really enjoyed reading as I dream to go back to sometime in my life, there is only one book that I have truly gone back to: Os Lusíadas by the renaissance Portuguese poet Luís de Camoes. 

Music wise, I would define Ten by Pearl Jam, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis or O monstro precisa de amigos by Ornatos Violeta as absolute classics to which I often go back to tank some sort of vital energy.

And wine wise? What is a classic wine for me?

Even though I tend to do with wines what I do with books (there are so many different and exciting things out there!), I do go back to certain wines that I have particularly enjoyed at a certain period.

But a classic for me is even something more.  

It is something that has a home feeling, that gives me that kind of certainty that the world is still in order and that some things just feel right at a certain moment.

And that is how I have decided to open this Esteva 2023.

Being one of the entrance level wines from one of the most iconic portuguese wine estates I have to admit that I have not tried it for quite a long time but that it had a constant presence in my past. 

Being so, my expectation on going back to a wine that has marked a very specific period in my life when I was starting to define my wine taste, was quite high. And this despite the risk and fear of being deeply disappointed.

But that did not happen. 

In the nose you can clearly distinguish the typical balsamic and mediterranean herbs that often define the Douro wines. Even though ripe blackberries dominate the primary flavours which could drive our perception to a stronger alcoholic wine this is quite the opposite. It shows an impressive freshness that has always fascinated me in most wines of the region, mainly due to the schist soils.

As a daily wine, it is an incredible price quality relation showing that Portugal can offer reliable wines that reflect a unique terroir. 

And this is, somehow, a very personal classic of mine as Douro wines have been the first ones that have conquered a place in my heart and opened me to the what the wine world has to offer. 

 

15/20
Country: Portugal
Region: Douro
Grapes: Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional 
Winemaker: Luís Sottomayor
13%
Link: www.sogrape.com

 

 

Location: Hamburg, Germany

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