Taking coals to Newcastle: Kaesler Touriga Nacional 2007 travels to Oporto

I’m just back from Oporto and, invited to dinner with a winemaker who loves to blind taste, took the opportunity to “take coals to Newcastle” in the rather tasty form of a bottle of Kaesler’s fortified Touriga Nacional 2007.  It’s from the Barossa Valley, South Australia.

He immediately recognised it wasn’t a Port.  Not because it’s a single varietal fortified which, incidentally, isn’t permissible in the Douro.  Rather because, he said, “it lacks greenness” and the tannin structure which comes with it.  Lower alcohol (it’s 18.5% while Vintage Port is 20% abv) also gave the game away.

But what it lost in ageability it won in approachability, with its extremely balanced delivery of concentrated but bright black fruits.  All the more impressive when it hails from the hot 2007 vintage.  I’m not surprised winemaker Reid Bosward says of Touriga Nacional “I believe it has a very bright future here. It likes the conditions and ripens late, well after when we would normally expect heat waves.”

Exuberant yet refined, its sweet jube notes are kept in check by slickly defined black raspberry and plum fruit on the palate, while Touriga’s classic rock rose scent adds lift.   It (the rock rose) is a beguiling trait which I’ve noticed in other Barossa wines, even if they just feature a dash of Touriga Nacional, like St Hallett’s Gamekeeper’s Reserve,Quattro Mano’s Duende or First Drop’s JR Gantos.  Like it!