NV Ramos Pinto 10 Year Old Quinta da Ervamoira Tawny Port, Portugal (750ml)

TASTING NOTES:

The NV Quinta da Ervamoira Tawny RP 10 Year Old Port comes in at 106 grams per liter of residual sugar. This is the new 2015 bottling. Beautifully focused and balanced, this has fine mid-palate weight for the category and a complex medley of concentrated flavors on the finish. Quite gripping, it is beautifully done and rather impressive, while always remaining graceful and impeccably balanced. There is very respectable tension on the finish, too, that enlivens the wine. Taste this in isolation and you’ll think my score is pretty stingy, but remember that there does need to be some headroom when we step up to the long-aged Tawny treasures. This may have been my favorite 10 Year Tawny this issue.

Ramos Pintos’ tawnies are very reliable, showing good concentration and balance all the time. They are typically among my favorites in their categories. You can’t go wrong with them. All of the tawnies come with bar top corks here. That is usually the producer’s way of saying that they aren’t expected to be aged. They are ready to drink on release. Tawnies, of course, are very resistant. Barring cork failures, they will hold well for decades, if you must hold them.

– Mark Squires of eRobertParker, 91 pts