“The NV Collector Porto Reserva is an unfiltered Port coming in with 99 grams per liter of residual sugar and a bar-top cork. It was aged about five years in large, well-used wooden vats (25+ years old). This Reserva takes Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca from Ramos Pinto's Quinta da Ervamoira and Tinta Barroca from its Quinta do Bom Retiro. (A field blend from Bom Retiro fills out the blend.) This particular bottle was from the August 30, 2018 bottling (lot number L-18242A). Winemaker Ana Rosas told me that this "doesn’t undergo any type of treatment, no fining, cold stabilized, nothing. It’s only a blend of different wines of several ages, some young, some quite mature. The wines can age in wood (balseiros) and in cement or in both....We release our first 'Collector' with a proper cork and the wine used to age [beautifully], something between LBV and Crusted, but the market...didn’t want a proper cork...The wine has the capacity to age but with this bar top no more than four to five years. After that, the wine will be good but will lose fruit." Dark and stern, leaning more to figs and dried plums than sweet red fruits, this very expressive and intense Reserva has unusual power for a Ruby Reserva and plenty of concentration for the category. One or two may have been its equal, but there was no wine in this report that showed better after being held for another two days. At that point, it still showed surprising power and coated the palate. As time went on, when a lot of the Reserves in this report fell off, this just got better. The gripping finish, even two days later, beautiful fruit and serious demeanor made it seem pretty fine. It has impressive color as well, reminiscent of Vintage Port. The complexity in the flavor profile added a key bit of distinction—it has a certain maturity to it that is appealing. The texture was velvety and sensual. Five days later, it was still intriguing and I couldn't say that about many of them this issue. Simply, it is wonderfully expressive—unusually so for a Ruby Reserve. The only downside—the norm for a Ruby Reserve—is that I wouldn't expect it to hold at this level for too many years (bar-top cork or not). That's a key distinction between this and a real Vintage Port or a top LBV (like Ramos Pinto's) that must constrain my scoring. While it is young and fresh, though, you may like it even more than the score suggests. It was probably my favorite of the tasting.

P.s. You'll also like the typically atmospheric Ramos Pinto label—a bonus.”

“This is an estate-grown Port from two properties—Bom Retiro, on the left bank of the Douro across from Pinhão, and Ervamoira, near Foz Coa in the Douro Superior. Both sites contributed touriga nacional, which benefited from the rains in mid-September; that and touriga francesa from Ervamoira are the main components in the blend, while other varieties, including barroca, bring complexity. It’s a muscular vintage from Ramos Pinto, almost completely shut down behind its tannins until the flavor bursts out in the finish, tingling with power. The dry, hot season shows in those tannins, but there’s also deep red-cherry power to the fruit, waiting to fill out the structure with time.”

“With its highly perfumed character, this wine is intense with ripe tannins and delicious acidity. It almost needs to hold back on its ebullient aromas and fruitiness to balance out. The tannic structure could help, with a dry aftertaste that hints at the fruit to come.”

“The 2015 Vintage Port, the last from João Nicolau de Almeida’s reign as Managing Director at Ramos Pinto, is mostly Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca. It comes in at 94 grams per liter of residual sugar. This declared Vintage Porto was in bottle for a bit more than a month when seen. It seemed to have some room to grow and improve, to say the least. It looks like a fine 2015, showing plenty of power as it tightens and gets harder in the glass, plus very flavorful fruit. It has enough concentration, although no one will ever call this the most concentrated vintage. It is, however, focused and precise, bright and fresh, with that fine structure. This declaration was the right decision by Ramos Pinto (although early reports from winemaker Ana Rosas are that they do not have enough quantity to declare the 2016, anyway). Even so, this looks pretty fine. We’ll see what the future holds, of course, and there should be a long one here. This should age gracefully. It may also be approachable young, but if you really want it to be all it can be, cellar it for much longer than indicated, say, another ten years at least, maybe more. At that point, it just might be entitled to an uptick. There were 8,300 bottles produced, plus some large-format bottles.”

“Well-built, with dark fig, boysenberry and blackberry confiture notes studded liberally with ganache, roasted apple wood and Black Forest cake flavors.”