Herdade Do Esporão Alentejo Touriga Nacional 2021 (750ml) *

Touriga Nacional is Portugal's calling card, a grape prized for structure and dark fruit, and here it comes from the warm Alentejo in the country's south. This bottling from Esporão draws on certified-organic fruit off older trellised vines planted in 1988, foot-trodden in marble lagar in the traditional way and raised in new French oak. It is a still red from the 2021 vintage, ripe and full at 14.5% alcohol, carrying the concentration that Alentejo heat tends to produce.

Expect a wine that leads with ripeness rather than perfume, the nose more warming and oak-inflected than floral. The palate is dense and grippy, with tannins that still show some astringency and youthful edge. This is a red built to settle down with time in the cellar, where the structure should soften and the fruit come forward.