Cortes de Cima

History

Our flagship wine made from selected batches. 12 months barrel ageing. Full bodied blend of Aragonez, Syrah and other Portuguese varieties. Rich intense fruit balanced with ripe tannins. Cellaring 3-5 years. Filtered, unfined.

Current Vintage: 2007

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Click here for PDFs of past vintages: 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Vintage 2007

A cooler and delayed growing season resulted in grapes with lower baumé, and wines with less alcohol but more elegance. Splendid weather at both the start and end of the harvest, of sunny, warm days and cool nights, was interrupted by a spell of inclement thunderstorms. The unusual September humidity dashed our hopes for a potential superlative vintage, into just a better than average year.

Vinification

Made exclusively from selected grapes hand picked at optimum maturity from our own vineyards. Fermented without stems under temperature control, frequent delestage, followed by extended skin maceration to enhance varietal fruit characters, and to provide tannin structure and balance. Aged for 12 months in French (80%), American (20%) oak barrels, and then blended to give balanced varietal fruit and oak components. Bottled, unfined and filtered in May 2009.

Tasting Notes

Vibrant, deep red colour with purple edges. Bright red berry fruit aromas, suggesting cherries and plums, with mint, chocolate and smokey oak complexity. Smooth, seamless, elegant palate, with supple fruit and silky tannins. It has lovely balance, great length and a very persistent aftertaste, showing extremely well at this early stage, but with enough intensity and structure to improve for several years in the bottle. An extremely good example of the excellent 2007 vintage, with good purity of fruit and elegance of style.

Appellation: Vinho Regional Alentejano

Varieties: 56% Syrah, 20% Aragonez (Tempranillo), 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, 5% Touriga Nacional

Total Acids: 5.2

Final pH: 3.58

Residual Sugars: 2.9

Alcohol: 14%

Barrel Ageing:12 months in FO (80%) and AO (20%)

Grown, produced and bottled at the family estate

Total production: 136.691 bottles

Bottled unfined and filtered in May 2009

Release date: July 2009

Unique Code: AVIN0292755246691 [?]

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Ratings

90 - WE 12/2009

88 - Mark Squires 01/2010

Reviews

The estate blend from Cortes de Cima is an elegant, lightly structured wine. It has fine fruit flavors, with an attractive strawberry juice sweetness that balances well with the core of dry tannins. The wine finishes softly, with sweet juicy acidity. - R.V. (12/15/2009)

The 2007 TINTO, merely labeled “Cortes de Cima,” is the mid-priced entrant in the lineup, a blend this year of Aragonez, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Touriga Nacional and Petit Verdot aged for 12 months in barrel. If you want to see what happens to the Chamine reviewed this issue with more depth, concentration and structure…voila. This is nicely focused, with some concentration and intensity of flavor and grip on the finish. It has a modern, New World style, but turns a little austere and crisp on the finish, too. If you like the style-fruit forward and flavorful-this is a very good vintage for this wine. The winery recommends drinking by 2014-that sounds about right, but I think it should hold a bit longer, even if not at peak. Drink now-2016 - Mark Squires (12/01/2010)