Taboadella Villae Dão Tinto 2021

Taboadella continues to move from one strength to the next with their 2021 Villae Dão Tinto (40% Tinta Roriz, 20% Jaen, 20% Tinta Pinheira, 20% Alfrocheiro). This smooth and flavorful Tinto shines in the glass: its deep ruby color enticing the taster to jump right in. Cherry, raspberry, and red berry fruits waft from the glass to delight the nose. This is an elegant Tinto that delights the palate with soft, sensuous fruit, forest floor, and lively mineral-rich flavors. Juicy and lively to the last drop, the 2021 Taboadella Villae Tinto expertly integrates the finest attributes of its four indigenous varietals into one seamless garment, underscoring the Amorim family’s Midas touch with Portugal’s autochthonous grape varieties. For optimal enjoyment, provide this wine at least 15-20 minutes of aeration before enjoying it at cool room temperature (58°-62° F). Anticipated maturity: 2024-2027.

Portugal’s seafaring tradition and spice trade coupled with an enviable position between the sea and the mountains have endowed Portugal with a rich and diverse diet to pair with the food-friendly 2021 Taboadella Villae Tinto. Poultry and pork dishes provide especially tasty companionship. A perfectly grilled pork tenderloin in a fresh ginger, lime, and soy sauce makes a splendid companion. Add a tasty orzo salad with garbanzo beans, basil, mint, and red onion for an added kick. A tender, juicy veal chop atop a hearty wild mushroom risotto provides another splendid accompaniment. Portugal’s rendition of Iberian ham from the same little black pigs that proliferate throughout the Iberian Peninsula makes a fine pairing, as do Portugal’s rich, smoky sausages wrapped in slices of thick country bread with roasted vegetables. A selection of Portugal’s delicious cheeses, including Rabaçal, Évora, and full-bodied Queijo de São Jorge also provide tasty and easy to prepare accompaniments to Taboadella’s 2021 Villae Dão Tinto. Enjoy!

Taboadella, nestled in the heart of the Dão between mountains of pine, chestnut, and cork oak, has been a place full of life and character for millennia. This ancient settlement alongside the Ribeira das Fontainhas dates to the first century when a Roman villa, winery, granary, and assorted other buildings occupied the area. Taboadella’s prominence re-emerged again in the 13th century when it came under the auspices of the Knights Templar. In 1504 it received a formal charter from Portugal’s King Manuel and subsequently became the domain of several knighted families until being acquired by its present owners, the Amorim family.

The Amorims have been involved in wine since 1870 when they began negotiating cork sales to Port producers in Vila Nova de Gaia. And, although they remain one of the world’s largest suppliers of cork, they have over the last three decades committed themselves to restoring and developing wineries and vineyards of historical significance in the Alentejo, Dão, and Douro. In addition to Taboadella, the Amorims are the proprietors of the Aldea de Cima estate in the Alentejo and one of the most respected Port lodges, Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo in the Douro.

Today, Luisa Amorim oversees Taboadella and the family’s other quintas where wines and vineyards have ancestral roots and cultural importance. She has helped restore Taboadella to its original purpose as a winery, vineyard, and a place full of life and character in harmony with its surroundings. Only indigenous grape varietals such as Encruzado, Tinta Roriz (also known as Aragonez or Tempranillo), Jaen, and Touriga Nacional, among others, are cultivated at Taboadella, which enables the family to “recover from the past the essence of nature and project great wines into the future with a remarkable typicality [while] maintaining the ancestral character of the Dão.” We invite you to taste the exceptional indigenous wines of Taboadella.

Located in the north/central part of Portugal, Dão is surrounded on all sides by mountains, which shelter this important viticultural region from severe weather and provide the ideal conditions for the cultivation of Portugal’s excellent, though mostly unsung, indigenous grape varietals. The region’s high altitude vineyards grow on granite and schist soils up to nearly 3,500 feet. Dão’s high altitude makes for cool nights, slow ripening, and the propensity to produce highly aromatic wines of superior elegance and longevity.

The Dão produces both red and white wines. Dão’s signature white grape is Encruzado, a grape renowned for producing tasty white wines in a myriad of styles, which range from fresh, light, and supremely elegant white wines to crunchy, complex, barrel-aged versions. The region’s indigenous red grape varieties, most notably Tinta Roriz (aka Aragonez or Tempranillo), Jaen, Baga, Bastardo, Tinta Pinheira, Touriga Nacional, and Alfrocheiro, also figure prominently in the production of red Dão or Tinto. Dão is proving to be equally adept at fashioning easy-drinking everyday reds as well as deep, sophisticated, age-worthy red wines of considerable renown.