Adega Cooperativa de Alijo "Vale d'Anaias tinto Bruto", Vinho Espumante D.O. Douro

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Adega Cooperativa de Alijo "Vale d'Anaias tinto Bruto", Vinho Espumante D.O. Douro

Color: very dark red - purple, strong mousse, coarse bubbles.
Nose: expressive, ripe, sweet and spicy, beautiful fruit, with impressions of cinnamon, cloves, cherries and brambles, juicy, freshness, a hint of Port, very clean and some depth and even some complexity.
Taste: quite strong mousse, expressively fruity (cherry, berry and bramble), rich mid-palate: very juicy and a little touch of sweetness, spices, ample ripe tannins, fresh acidity, but also round, very clean, honest and ripe young fruit, excellent balance between softness, freshness, tannins and that tiny little touch of sweetness: mild, but with enough exciting tension and character.
Finish: medium long, with fruit (brambles, cherries, berries), some pepper, cedar, tannins, a tiny touch of sweetness, juicy, clean, nice tension, very good balance.

* An exciting rarity: dry red sparkling Douro-wine with tannins, loaded with beautiful fruit, good freshness, rich mid-palate, spicy nuances, a hint of sweetness, very clean and original style with tension and an excellent balance, lots of bubbles (a bit coarse though) surprisingly delicious with good food.

- Drink it from now on, will keep for a few years: up to 2009 - 10

- This is something very rare indeed. Why do we only "know" white sparkling wines, and since a few years sparkling rosé. If a red wine contains carbon dioxide it is most of the time only pétillant/frizzante and they are only a few local specialties (some of the utterly delicious) mainly to be found in Italy, Spain and Portugal. But serious purple bubbles, as sparkling as Cava or Champagne you have to look very hard indeed to find one. Well here we have got one and also a very good one. Produced by a huge conglomerate of coops in the Douro Valley. Not the most reliable producer, but as this wine and its Xisto Velho Grande Escolha 2000 shows clearly on the way up in a qualitative sense. Produced by the Charmat method (bubbles originate from a re-fermentation in big sealed and pressure-resistant tanks and bottled under pressure from these tanks straight into the bottles) explaining the coarse mousse. But the base wine used for this sparkling wine is very good: loaded with scrumptious fruit. Sparkling wines is not my favored category, but this wine has won me over. It is so honest and exuberant, you can not but love its bubbly nature.

- lotnr.: L 08207

- tasted: 09-07-’07

- estimated retail price ca. € 14,=

- average production: not known

- Adega Cooperativa de Alijo, Mr. Marco Moura, Avenida 25 de Abril . nº 15 . 5070-011 ALIJÓ, tel: +351-259 959 101 . fax: +351-259 959 804 . e-mail: adegalijo.qualidade@mail.telepac.pt , web site: www.adegalijo.com