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Portugal

Adega Cooperativa de Alijo "Xisto Velho Grande Escolha" 2000, D.O. Douro **HERITAGE WINE**

Color: very dark red - brown.
Nose: very expressive, intense, very serious and classical style, ripe, mature, earthy, lots of minerals, ripe and some dried fruit (raisins, figs), warm, spicy, some farmyard, tobacco, smoke, roasted nuts, vanilla, mushrooms, a whiff of mint, deep, complex, very impressive, great terroir expression, very pure and honest.
Taste: very powerful, medium bodied, intense, with lots of classical, but ripe tannins, good acidity, a touch of austerity, also mature nuances, many nuances of earth, spices, farmyard, smoke, tobacco, cedar, mushrooms, minerals, classy ripe and dried fruit, very good length, complex, deep, unyielding style, but not hard or tough, very strong expression of terroir, excellent integration of oak, very good balance. Impressive, very honest and pure.
Finish: very long, with again a lot of nuances: fruit, spices, earth, minerals, tannins, acidity, vanilla, very intense and multi layered. Excellent balance, very impressive.

* A very impressive, strong, intense and complex wine, loaded with earthy, spicy and mineral nuances, dried fruit and strong tannins, very classical in style, super honest expression of its terroir, a rare wine from another time, in fact a relict, very exciting to taste so much "class from the past".

- Drink it from now on, will keep for a few years: up to 2010 - 15 .
 
- This wine reminds me of classical Bordeaux from the seventies. There is a wealth of tannins, but they have matured nicely and are not tough or dry, there is a strong acidity that gives this wine its backbone and length, there is ample alcohol, more than in Bordeaux those days, there are also more spicy nuances, but the structure and the unyielding style come quite close. What you may miss is elegance and refinement, but this is excellent compensated by the impeccable balance in this wine. You certainly will not find the modern upfront fruit, the toasted oak and thank good the over extracted and dry tannins from too much and too new wood and over extracted skins. This wine obviously is made from very old, low yielding vines in a good vineyard. Not a top vineyard I guess, but the intensity and complexity of the minerals provide so much structure and depth in this wine, it is very impressive to taste. Well done, even a huge and heterogeneous Coop in the Douro has the ability (and drive) to produce such a landmark (they also produce an exciting red sparkler), why don't we see more of this type and quality? There is so much potential in so many vineyards all over the world. Do not grub-up all those lovely low yielding old vines. Even grape varieties considered mediocre yield stunning wines from old plots in certain vineyards. Yes, do plant Cabernet and Chardonnay for pleasure, but preserve these little precious islands of history in the vineyards. It takes generations to bring this quality back, and in this world we simply have no time (and money) to wait so long to achieve this quality again.


- lotnr.:  --

- tasted: 19-06-’07

- estimated retail price ca. € 30,=

- 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