Alfocheiro Preto - Dão DOC – 1997 – Quinta dos Roques – Alc. 13.5% - Alfrocheiro mono-varietal.
Ben Rotter got upbraided by Victor for inaccurate stereotypes when he wrote the following about an Alfrocheiro from the Ribatejano region -
“This is like a combination of New World-big-and-soft-yet-dull style and an Old World-harsh-yet-lively in a way in which the best bits of each unite in harmony: ripe fruit yet with brightness, a palate that’s big and smooth yet savoury.”
So at the risk of attracting more thunderbolts, I have to say that, if I had been blind, I would have certainly taken this one for New World, probably Antipodean, and “big-and-soft-yet-dull” would be a pretty fair summary. Perhaps “dull” is not quite right here because the flavour profile is unusual; “soggy” is more apt.
C: Deep garnet with little sign of bricking.
N: “In your face” showing perfumed red fruit with notes of musk, sweetened cigar box and sweet liquorice.
P: Up-front, round and refulgent showing similar perfumed aromas to the nose together with fruit having a slightly canned sweet piquancy, like English boiled sweets, and a curious absence of tannic structure; not my thing at all; 13/20.
Reliable palates like Jancis Robinson’s have liked this wine in other vintages at a younger stage. So maybe what this one needed was its youthful vibrancy and I simply kept it too long (but then the oak would have been more obtrusive). The Jaen mono-varietal was more successful at a similar age, IMHO.
Perhaps there is a good reason, therefore, why the frequently flouted Dão appellation rules lay down a cocktail of varieties including a minimum of 20% Touriga Nacional.