Quinta de Chocapalha Vinha Mae 2015
Red Wine from Lisboa, Portugal
Quinta de Chocapalha Vinha Mae 2015
Red Wine from Lisboa, Portugal
A savoury red where indigenous varietals are blended with international Syrah – imaginative as a concept, and it works when blended by a palate as good as Sandra Tavares. Paulo and Alice Tavares da Silva bought this historic Quinta in the late Eighties and immediately set about investing in the property. When their daughter Sandra, once a top model, proved to be a prodigiously talented winemaker, the family launched their own wines and, in 2000, Chocapalha was born.
Rich, jet-ruby, with violet lights, this has an intense, concentrated nose, rich in black fruit complemented by floral notes. The palate echoes the aromatics on the nose, set within a rather classically-structured frame, opulent fruit reined in by ripe, rounded tannins. This hits the ground running, great with food and promises more, with some bottle age. The key is in the pronounced, poised, elegant and protracted finish.