Herdade de São Miguel Herdade de São Miguel Escolha dos Enólogos 2021 750ml

Touriga franca’s cool spice meets alicante bouschet’s warm embrace. The blend also includes touriga nacional, all of it aged in French oak barrels. The extraction is light enough that the wine emphasizes its smoky oak until it has a day or two of air to show its fleshy fruit tannins, spicy and bright, lasting on red fruit and fruit cordial.

The 2021 Escolha dos Enologos (São Miguel) is a blend of 50% Alicante Bouschet, 30% Touriga Franca and 20% Touriga Nacional, aged for nine months in new French oak. It comes in at 14.9% alcohol. Concentrated and fruit-forward, this combines a bit of beef with a touch of licorice and some grip on the finish. It never seems too big, but if I had a quibble, it does flatten a bit with aeration after a relatively exciting start. The structure is relatively modest, but there is some support for the fruit. Still, for the moment and in the youth of this red, this is a nice choice at a nice price. It may yet have some ability to evolve and improve.