2019 Herdade do Mouchão, Ponte Tinto, Alentejo, Portugal.
The deep and purple Ponte (Ponte das Canas) Tinto by Herdade do Mouchão is a unique all estate blend of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Syrah and is the label’s more recent wine in the lineup that shows ripe dark berry fruits, wild spices, crushed flowers and cedar wood notes. This full bodied palate is layered with rich blackberry, plum, currant, cherry and black fig fruits, along with hints of aromatic shrubs, smoky flint, creme de cassis, anise, cinnamon, violette, red pepper, vanilla and a touch of warm stone. This is opaque and opulent wine that really is best enjoyed with a hearty meal, which will help melt the firm tannin nd lush fruit core here with this one going very nicely with roast lamb. At Mouchão, the winery says, the red wines are vinified in open stone troughs, known as lagares with loads of whole bunches, including stems, that are included in the maceration process with daily foot punch downs. The Ponte was allowed to ferment for 4-7 days, after which, the wine is pressed to large cask, then undergoes malolactic fermentation in the large 5000L wooden tonéis. Once all is done with fermentation It is racked, usually in mid-winter, to a combination of mostly used French barriques with some new, where it matures in total close to 24 months, with this vintage seeing an extra 18 months, per normal, in bottle. Mouchão sourced the Touriga Franca, the main grape here, also found it classic Port wines, from the 16-year-old Ponte vineyard, the newest addition to the estate, while the Touriga Nacional and Syrah were both sourced from the 20-year-old Adega vineyard. Both of these vineyards sit on well-drained alluvial soils mixed with red Mediterranean loams.
I had never tried or heard of these Herdade do Mouchão wines, so I was curious to learn that the Herdade do Mouchão is a historic wine producer, found in the Alentejo region of Portugal, making a range of wines, including fortified offerings and even brandies as well, along with the still wines. They also do a selection of olive oil and wild honey from the estate, which was founded by Thomas Reynolds who arrived in Porto in 1824 and promptly established the export company Thomas Reynolds & Sons exporting Port to the UK I presume. In 1832, the cork business drew Reynolds to the Alentjo, and to what is known as the Herdade do Mouchão estate today, it was one of the numerous estates where Reynolds cultivated Quercus suber, the evergreen oak tree for cork production. Three generations later, his grandson John Reynolds extensively planted grapevines here at Herdade do Mouchão for wine production in 1901 and now there is 45 hectares (111 acres) of vines that are planted to Syrah, Trincadeira, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Alicante Bouschet, that makes up around half of all the estate’s vines. All grapes are hand-picked to preserve integrity. The flagship of the Herdade do Mouchão wine portfolio is the Mouchão Tonel No 3-4 Red. The varietal Alicante Bouschet is fermented in large stone lagares prior to aging in old barrels made of chestnut and oak staves with macacauba and mahogany bases for four to five years. Other table wines including this Ponte Mouchão Alentejo Tinto, Red Blend, which is roughly equal parts Touriga France, Touriga Nacional and Syrah, are slightly more conventional, and is aged in mostly used French oak barrels and old casks for 18 to 24 months, then aged for another, as mentioned above, 18 months in bottle, in the cellar, before release. Thanks to my friend, Lee Lightfoot, who works for the importer Wine Wise, for sharing his last bottle of the delicious Ponte with us!
($30 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive