2006 Quinta do Vale Meao Tinto

The 2006 TINTO, the winery’s flagship wine, is the result of a severe selection this year, an attempt to compensate for the shortcomings of the 2006 vintage. There were only 10,000 bottles produced, compared to a typical 27,000-30,000. The result is a wine that is more limited than usual, but simply delicious. It lacks the pure intensity of flavor of the beautiful ’04 or the power and vin de garde demeanor of the fine ’05, but for earlier consumption it won’t make anyone unhappy. Its flaws are the flaws of the vintage—a more modest mid-palate, modest structure and a shorter finish on a wine that did not improve as much with extended aeration as the ’05 and ’04. It drank adequately the next day, not bad, but hardly the marvel that better and earlier vintages were. This has many virtues that sneak up on you, nonetheless, but I’m not completely convinced. Perhaps it will prove it deserves a small uptick after some cellaring. This wine is one of the Douro’s trophies—thankfully, the price remains within reasonable limits considering the wine’s status, despite exchange rate problems. Drink now-2016. Importer: W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y.; tel: (914) 251-3209.