The first thing that came to mind when I took my initial sniff of the 2006 Symington Family Douro Vale de Bomfim, was it smelled like a Dry Creek Valley zinfandel. No kidding; it had a certain peppery spice and wild berry aroma that was reminiscent of wines from that particular part of zin country.
In the mouth, the wine was also not far off from tasting like a zin. More wild red and black berries, a little plum, currants and a lot of spice like cinnamon and black pepper. Nice weight, pleasant purity of fruit and easy to drink. We really enjoyed this quaffer of a wine.
I haven’t had a lot of experience with dry Portuguese reds and to tell you the truth, with the exception of Quinta do Crasto and another label I can’t remember, most of what I’ve had has been pretty bad. They were very dry, tasteless and insipid. I know a lot of this has to do with the availability of dry Portuguese reds in the market that I’ve lived in the past several years, so I’m definitely not writing these wines off. In fact, I’ve been noticing that lately there has been a lot of positive industry press about the new wave of quality Portuguese dry reds coming to market. I just tasted another solid one last week, so look out for my review on the Sogrape Callabriga.
As you can see, the blend consists of the usual port suspects.
I paid $10.99 + tax for this wine at Tamura’s Fine Wine and Liquors on Oahu. The wine is imported by Premium Port Wines Inc. of San Francisco.
The Grape Crusader 